IN THE BEGINNING 





GopyrigM - 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT, 



IN THE BEGINNING 

OR 

THE FIRST AGE 



Embracing the bible account of the creation of 

the world, the creation and fall of man, 

and the final destruction of the 

world by the Deluge. 



BY 

JAMES ENOS HOWARD, MD. 



BOSTON 

THE ROXBURGH PUBLISHING COMPANY 

INCORPORATED 






Copyright, 1916, 

By JAMES ENOS HOWARD, MD. 

Righta Reserved 



f. 



• '. 



AUG 28 V9i5 



■O.A437383 
.>V0 \ ' 



To the good men, and the good women, who study 
the Scriptures, with a view of finding in them the 
way of eternal life, this unassuming volume i3 
dedicated. 



PREFACE. 

The object that the author had in view 
in presenting this unassuming volume to i:he 
public, was to furnish a hand-book of in- 
formation that would help bible students 
to a better understanding of the many ques- 
tions connected with the antediluvian age. 
" That your faith should not stand in the 
wisdom of men, but in the power of God." 
(i Cor. 2:5.) 

The larger and more scholarly works 
along this line, are too critical for the aver- 
age reader, and, generally speaking, are in- 
accessible to the great mass of readers. 

The author has undertaken to supply the 
demand for a book that would meet the re- 



Preface 

quirements of this class. With this object 
in view, he has gleaned the field of literature 
for information bearing on the various sub- 
jects contained in the book, and has gath- 
ered together the opinions of eminent 
scholars, and divines, from all parts of the 
world. 

He has not confined his research to the 
writings of any particular denomination, but 
has garnered the opinions of the leading 
scholars of all denominations, being careful 
to eliminate everything that would tend 
to weaken the reader's belief in the inspira- 
tion of the sacred scriptures. 

Where the opinions of scholars have been 
found to differ on the fundamental doctrines 
of the Christian churches, he has given the 
different opinions of the leading writers, 



Preface 

and left the reader free to choose for him- 
self which he prefers. 

In the preparation of the book, the au- 
thor has consulted more than a score of 
standard works on theology, bible diction- 
aries, commentaries, and devotional books 
of the early Christian fathers, beside a num- 
ber of works, such as Moral Science, an- 
cient history, scientific works and encyclo- 
pedia. 

The author has written from a deep con- 
viction of duty, and has fortified all his 
opinions by abundant scriptural reference to 
the sacred text. 

He has tried to make the work reliable 
and authoritative. In the course of the 
work he has thought proper to add frequent 
quotations from eminent scholars, but has 
given credit to all authors whom he has 



Preface 

quoted, so far as he knows to whom credit 
is due. 

If any inaccuracies have inadvertently 
crept into the work, he Will gladly correct 
them if attention is called to such mistake. 

Another feature of the work is its brev- 
ity. Many of the great truths that lie hid- 
den in the text, have been merely pointed 
out to the reader. The intention being to 
draw che reader's attention to these precious 
truths, and let him study them out himself, 
thus teaching him to think. 

The writer does not claim originality for 
much of the matter contained in the book. 
He has acted more in the capacity of a com- 
piler, having gathered together the opinions 
of the leading writers on the various topics, 
using only enough of his own language to 
cement them together in an abridged form. 
yiii 



Preface 

With this explanation the writer sends it 
forth, trusting that God will bless the mo- 
tive that prompted him to make the effort, 
and hopes that it will aid those who have not 
the time, nor the inclination, to study the 
more ponderous text-books on the subject, 
to a clearer and more comprehensive knowl- 
edge of the sacred scriptures. 

James E. Howard. 



ii 



Contents 



CHAPTER I. 

Use of Paragraphs— Beginning of Time — The 
Earth Without Form and Void — A State of Chaos — 
The Spirit of God — Let There Be Light — Day and 
Night Essential to all Life — The Firmament — 
Logical Order of the Creation — The Waters Above 
the Firmament — Prof. Totten's Theory — The Dry 
Land and Seas Established — Vegetable Matter 
Created — The Sun and Moon Set in the Heavens 
on the Fourth Day — Aeonic Days — Augustine — 
Dr. James Orr — Lower Order of Animal Life 
Created — Multiply and Replenish — The Sixth Day — 
Creatures of the Dry Land Created — Reproduction. 

CHAPTER II. 

Let Us Make Man — The Blessed Trinity — Jesus 
Christ Perfect God and Perfect Man — Man a Crea- 
ation and a Formation — The Image and Likeness of 
God— Man's Dominion — Mystery of Reproduction — 
Scriptural Teaching — Physiology — Man's Food. 

xi 



Contents 

CHAPTER III. 

Man Pronounced Good — God's Plan — The Six 
Days — Revelations of Geology — Hugh Miller — Al- 
legory and Myth — What Moses Taught— Natural 
and Supernatural — The Miraculous — God's Power to 
Transcend the Natural — Cowper. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Establishment of the Sabbath — Necessity for a Day 
of Rest — Scriptural Authority — Early Observance 
of the Sabbath — Jesus Censured for Healing On — 
Change from Seventh Day of Week to First — The 
Lord's Day — Ignatius and Others — Paul's Teaching 
1 — Council of Laodicea — Punishment for Profaning — 
Our Duty Concerning. 

CHAPTER V. 

" The Day the Lord God Made the Earth "—Gen- 
eration of the Heavens and the Earth — Garden of 
Eden — Actual History, Allegory, or Myth — Why 
It Cannot Be Located — Man Forbidden to Eat of 
the Tree of Light and Knowledge — Penalty for 
Disobedience — Creation of Eve — The Marriage Re- 

xii 



Contents 

lation— Discrepancy in Order of Creation— Oral 
Traditions Inspired. 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Speaking Serpent — The Serpent Capable of 
Such a Crime — Evidence that the Serpent Was Satan 
— Character and Origin of Satan — Hebrew Concep- 
tion not Persian Mythology — Is Subordinate to Jesus 
Christ — His Character Fully Revealed in the Chris- 
tian Era. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Three Characters Connected With the Fall — 
Satan's Transgression was Deliberate — Satan Ap- 
pears to Eve — Eve Sins, Then Adam — Their Eyes 
Opened — The Voice of God — Satan not Forbidden to 
Eat of the Fruit — The Call to Judgment — Did Satan 
Thwart the Purpose of God — Satan's Punishment. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The Woman's Sentence — The Sorrows and Suffer- 
ing of Motherhood — Subject to Thy Husband — In- 
cludes Death Penalty — Prejudices of Ancient He- 

xiii 



Contents 

brews — Woman Redeems Herself and Her Pos- 
terity — Jesus Christ Solely the Seed of the Woman 
— Not Born According to the Natural Order of Hu- 
manity — The Sentence of Adam — The Toil and 
Sweat of Labor, and the Return of His Mortal 
Body to the Dust — Adam and Eve Equally Guilty. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Sent Out of Eden — Estranged from God — Man 
Created Immortal — Became Subject to Death — Sin 
of Parents Transmitted in the Natural Order — All 
are Born Enemies of God — Why Man was Left 
Free to Choose Between Good and Evil. 

CHAPTER X. 

Birth of Cain and Abel— Their Sacrifices— Cain 
Rejected — Nature of Sacrifices — God's Expostulation 
Enrages Cain— Cain Slays Abel— My Brother's 
Keeper — A Summary of the Law of Moses — Cain 
Cursed From the Earth — His Wife— Descendants of 
Cain— Lamech's Two Wives — Lamech's Sons Devel- 
ope Mechanical Arts — The Increase of Sin in the 
Line of Cain— Iniquities of Fathers Visited on 
Children. 



Contents 

CHAPTER XL 

The Generations of Adam — Historical Setting of 
Genesis — The Plan of Moses — The Patriarchs — Enos 
and Enoch — Longevity of Patriachs — Transmis- 
sion of Oral Traditions — Life Shortened on Ac- 
count of Sin — The Restraining Influence of Christi- 
anity. 

CHAPTER XII. 

The Sons of God — Pastor Russell's Theory — Rus- 
sellism Refuted — Dr. William Smith's Teaching — 
Sons of God the Descendants of Seth — The Story 
not a Myth — The Bible Account Inspired — Intel- 
lectual and Physical Giants to be Expected. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The Deluge an Act of God — Sent as a Punish- 
ment for Sin — Scriptural Proofs of the Deluge, 
Job. 22:15-16; Isa. 54:9; Heb. 11:7; I Pet. 3:20; 
2 Pet. 2:5; Matt. 24:37; Luke 17:26. Traditions 
of the Deluge — Von Humboldt — Lenormant — Scien- 
tific Proofs — Geology, Archaeology — Prof. L. T. 
Townsend — Discoveries of Dr. Lund in Brazil — Con- 
clusions of Sir William Jones. 



Contents 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Date of the Deluge — Noah, the Chief Human 
Character — God's Grief and Repentance — Dr. Mar- 
cus Dodd's Explanation — The Wickedness and 
Violence of Mankind Due to the Intermarriage of 
the Sons of Seth to the Idolatrous Descendants of 
Cain — Only One Righteous Family Left — The De- 
luge not a Cruel Act — God's Long Suffering — Man 
Irredeemably Bad — God's Mercy in the Days of 
Noah — Prof. L. T. Townsend. 

CHAPTER XV. 

Construction of the Ark— Dimensions of Ark in 
Feet and Inches Unknown — Objections to Size of 
Ark — The Ark Completed and Provisioned — The 
Flood — Dr. Joseph Parker's Description of Flood — 
Time Occupied by the Flood — Sending Forth of the 
Dove — Landing of the Ark — Noah's Sacrifice — God's 
Covenant with Noah— God Still Punishes Sin. 



xvi 



IN THE BEGINNING 

or 

THE FIRST AGE 



CHAPTER I. 

" In the beginning God created the 
heaven and the earth. And the earth was 
without form, and void; and darkness was 
upon the face of the deep. And the spirit 
of God moved upon the face of the waters." 
(Gen. i : 1-2.) 

Before beginning the study of the bible 
the student should remember, that each 
chapter of the sacred text is divided into 
a number of paragraphs, and that each para- 
graph treats of a different subject, or, at 
least, a different phase of the same subject, 
and that sometimes many years have elapsed, 
1 



In The Beginning 

between the incidents mentioned in one para- 
graph and that of the next. 

If the reader will keep this in mind, it 
will help him to understand some of the 
statements of the bible, that have heretofore 
seemed most perplexing. 

The first paragraph (that quoted above) 
does not fix the date of the creation of the 
heaven and the earth, it only describes the 
condition of the earth, before God exercised 
His creative genius, in preparing it for the 
reception and sustenance of the vegetable 
and animal life about to be created. 

" In the beginning " refers to the begin- 
ning of time, not eternity. Eternity never 
had a beginning, but time had. Time is 
that measurable portion of duration which 
lies between the extremes of two eternities 
> — eternity before time was, and eternity 
2 



Or The First Age 

when time shall be no more — days, years, 
centuries, are terms used to measure por- 
tions of time, they measure no part of eter- 
nity. Eternity cannot be measured, neither 
can it be translated into terms capable of 
human conception. 

It is true that " God created the heaven 
and the earth," but not at this time, at 
least, not during the six successive days, or 
gradations, mentioned here as the creation 
week. 

If the reader will take the account of the 
creation day by day, he will learn just what 
God accomplished on each of the days, and 
he will find that the creation of the earth is 
not mentioned as being created on any of 
these days. 

Our English translation of the bible, in 
describing the appearance of the earth at 



In The Beginning 

that time, says, " The earth was without 
form, and void/' That is to say, the earth 
(existed, but) was without form, and void, 
i.e., a shapeless, formless mass of matter, 
desolate and uninhabitable, until God re- 
duced the elements to order, fixing their 
form and destiny. The words of the He- 
brew Bible, " Then the earth had become 
waste and void," makes it still more plain. 
There is no doubt, but that, just such a con- 
dition as this followed the glacial floods, 
that scientists tell us overwhelmed the earth 
a short time before the advent of man. 

The earth was unfit for the growth of 
vegetable matter, and unfit for sustaining 
the animal life that God was about to create. 
It was void of light, void of day and night, 
void of sun and moon to serve " as signs 
for seasons, and for days, and years," void 
4 



Or The First Age 

of every form of life, " and darkness was 
upon the face of the deep." That bound- 
less, unimaginable, and indescribable dark- 
ness known as chaos. Such was the con- 
dition of the earth before " The spirit of 
God moved upon the face of the waters." 

" The spirit of God " ; — the essence, en- 
ergy, genius, and intelligence of God; the 
third person in the Godhead; the creative 
Spirit of God, that brooded over the waters, 
fecundated, energized the chaotic mass, and 
caused it to bring forth according to the 
word of His power. 

" And God said let there be light : and 
there was light. And God saw the light, 
that it was good; and God divided the light 
from the darkness. And God called the 
light Day, and the darkness He called Night. 



In The Beginning 

And the evening and the morning were the 
first day" (Gen. 1:3-5). 

The first step in the preparation of the 
earth for the growth of vegetable matter, 
so that it could sustain the animal life to be 
created later, was the separation of the light 
from the darkness, instituting day and night. 

Light and darkness were both essential 
for the maintenance of life. Light was re- 
quired for the growth and development of 
animal and vegetable life, as well as the de- 
velopment of the arts, and sciences. Man 
must have light to labor; but the continual 
glare of the light would soon destroy all 
animal and vegetable life. All nature re- 
quires a period of darkness. We need the 
darkness to shut out the glare of the sun, we 
need it for rest, we need it for forgetful- 
ness. At night all nature is renewed for 
6 



Or The First Age 

the coming day. In fact, without both day 
and night, there could be no animal or vege- 
table life on the earth. And so God placed 
a line of demarcation, between the light and 
the darkness. 

This settles the mooted question, Which 
existed first, day or night ? There was night 
before there was day, " The evening was 
and the morning was," constituting the first 
day. 

" Let there be light," has been God's plan 
in a spiritual sense in all ages. 

" And God said, let there be a firmament 
in the midst of the waters, and let it divide 
the waters from the waters. And God made 
the firmament, and divided the waters which 
were under the firmament from the waters 
which were above the firmament : and it was 
so. And God called the firmament heaven. 
7 



In The Beginning 

And the evening and the morning were the 
second day " (Gen. i : 6-8). 

The second day's labor was the logical 
sequence of the first. In the first He sep- 
arated the light from the darkness, and in 
the second He separated the waters which 
were under the firmament from those which 
were above. 

A firmament is an expanse, or space. It 
is all that vast space which lies between the 
earth and the starry universe above. 

" The waters which were above the fir- 
mament ", probably refers to the water con- 
tained in the atmosphere. 

The height of the atmospheric belt which 
surrounds the earth, has been variously esti- 
mated at from fifty to two hundred miles. 
It is said to contain in the form of vapor 
enough water, if suddenly condensed, to 
8 



Or The First Age 

cover the whole earth to the tops of the 
highest mountains. This may have been the 
source of the water that was poured out of 
the flood-gates of heaven, at the time of the 
great deluge. 

The theory of Professor Totten, is, that 
the earth once had a ring or rings composed 
of water, like that of Saturn, and that, they 
were brought in contact with the earth, in the 
time of the deluge. 

The same logical order follows on the 
third day. In it God gathered the waters 
under the firmament into one place and 
caused the dry land to appear. " And God 
called the dry land earth, and the gathering 
together of the waters called he seas " 
(Gen. i : 10). 

The earth was now ready for the creation 
of the vegetable kingdom. " And God said, 
9 



In The Beginning 

let the earth bring forth grass, the herb 
yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding 
fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, 
upon the earth; and it was so. And the 
evening and the morning were the third 
day" (Gen. i : n-13). 

The next paragraph, including the four- 
teenth to the twenty-eighth verses, brings 
us face to face with one of the profoundest 
mysteries of the creation. One-half of the 
time allotted to the creation — three days and 
three nights — have been consumed, and 
there has been no sun and moon created, and 
set in the firmament, " To give light upon 
the earth, and to rule over the day and over 
the night, to serve as signs for seasons, and 
for days and years." 

If the sun had not been created until the 
fourth day, from whence was the light for 
10 



Or The First Age 

the three previous days derived ? And what 
was the length of those days ? We may well 
ask as Augustine did, what kind of days 
these were that rolled their course, before 
the sun with its twenty-four hours of diurnal 
measurement was appointed to that end ? 

Dr. James Orr of Scotland, thinks there 
is no lack of reverence for the word of God 
in substituting in thought, ceonic days — vast 
cosmic periods — for the shorter sun-meas- 
ured days of our calendar. 

Whether they were vast ceons of time, or 
ordinary days, we do not know. We only 
know that it was at this period in the crea- 
tion, that God set the two great lights in 
the heaven. " The greater light to rule the 
day and the lesser light to rule the night. 
He made the stars also. And God set them 
in the firmament of the heaven to give light 
11 



In The Beginning 

upon the earth. And the evening and the 
morning were the fourth day 1 " (Gen. 
i : 14-28). 

The earth was now able to support the 
lower order of animal life, and God pro- 
ceeded to create them. Here the same nat- 
ural order follows: The creation of the 
moving creatures of the sea, followed by 
the fowl of the air. " And God blessed 
them, saying, be fruitful and multiply, and 
fill the waters of the sea, and let the fowl 
multiply in the earth. And the evening and 
the morning were the fifth day" (Gen. 
1 : 20-23 ) • 

On the morning of the sixth day, there 
was light, heat, food, and everything neces- 
sary to sustain the creatures of the dry land. 
" And God made the beast of the earth after 
his kind, and the cattle after their kind, and 
everything that creepeth upon the earth 
12 



Or The First Age 

after his kind; and God saw that it was 
good " (Gen. i : 25). 

He also gave them the power to bring 
forth their own kind, to multiply and fill 
the earth, as he had previously given the 
vegetable kingdom, the creatures of the seas, 
and the fowls of the air. 

Biologists have sought for ages to un- 
ravel the mystery of that inherent power 
that God gave all living matter, to reproduce 
their own species. By the aid of the micro- 
scope they have analyzed living matter and 
found that every form of life springs from 
a single cell — a mere mass of protoplasm 
with a germinal spot — but by what mys- 
terious power it imparts life to its offspring, 
and brings forth its own kind, has baffled 
the curiosity of man, it is beyond the ken 
of man. All we know is that God willed 
it so, and beyond this we know nothing. 
13 



Jn The Beginning 



CHAPTER II. 

" And God said, let us make man, in our 
own image, after our likeness ; and let them 
have dominion over the fish of the sea, and 
over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, 
and over all the earth, and over every creep- 
ing thing that creepeth upon the earth " 
(Gen. 1 126). 

The words " let us make man ", were 
probably spoken to the second and third 
Persons in the Godhead. True there is 
only one God, but in this one God there are 
three distinct persons, the Father, the Son, 
and the Holy Ghost. " In our image ", — 
the plural " our " would indicate that God 
consulted with others equal in power and 
14 



Or The First Age 

wisdom to Himself. In verse 27, we read 
" in the image of God " — the Triune God — 
" created he him ; male and female created 
he them ". 

Jesus Christ, the Son, and Second Person, 
in the Blessed Trinity, is perfect God, and 
perfect man. " He is over all, God blessed 
forever " (Rom. 9:5). " He is God of the 
substance of the Father begotten before 
time; He is man of the substance of his 
mother, born in time " (Athanasian Creed). 

In verse twenty-seven, we are told, " God 
created man in his own image ", and in 
verse seven, chapter two, we are told that 
" The Lord God formed man of the dust 
of the ground ". There is a distinction be- 
tween a creation and a formation. To 
create is to form out of nothing, to cause 
to come into existence. To form is to mold 
15 



In The Beginning 

into shape, or orderly arrangement, using 
material that already exists. 

Man, therefore, is a creation, and a 
formation. He is a creation in the sense, 
that no other creature in the form of man, 
and the image of God, had ever existed 
before. He is a formation in the sense, 
that he was made out of material that al- 
ready existed, i.e., the dust of the ground. 

" In our image after our likeness ". Every 
one who will reflect on this subject must be 
convinced, that, inasmuch as God is infi- 
nitely beyond the range of human analogy, 
His image must also be beyond the grasp 
of our conception. How does man reflect 
the image and likeness of the creator? Not 
in the composition of his physical body. 
Man's body is earthly, and must return to 
dust again, while God is a spirit, and no part 
16 



Or The First Age 

of Him can ever perish. Neither can His 
image be obliterated by death. 

Surely not in the principal attributes, 
omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence. 
Where then is the image and likeness of 
God to be found? The soul bears a strik- 
ing resemblance to the immortality of God. 

The spirit of God is reflected in the in- 
tellectual attainments of man, ever demand- 
ing new worlds to conquer, and in his vic- 
tories over time and space. This spirit of 
knowledge and wisdom, is no other than 
the spirit of God. " In apprehension how 
like a God." 

It is again seen in the gift of language, 
and in the political status of man. No other 
creature possesses either language or domin- 
ion. We see this likeness far more in our 
moral nature. With all the weaknesses that 
17 



In The Beginning 

are inseparable from fallen humanity there is 
still something of the Divine left. Something 
in man's heart that reflects a strange sym- 
pathy with the holiness and love of God. Al- 
though our moral natures are blighted and 
blurred by sin, there is still a dim conscious- 
ness that we were not only formed in His 
likeness, but formed to be like Him. Even 
though " we have this treasure in earthen 
vessels " (2 Cor. 4:7). This I think is be- 
cause we are " partakers of the Divine na- 
ture ". But we should not restrict the bible 
statement, that man was created in the like- 
ness and image of God to either man's spirit 
or to his body, it may refer to his united 
whole, including spiritual qualities, and 
bodily form. When we come to see God 
and to know Him as He is, it may be found 



18 



Or The First Age 

that we resemble Him more fully than we 
suspect. 

" And let them have dominion ". Man 
was the crowning glory of the creation, 
made in His image, the only creature en- 
dowed with dominion. To have dominion 
implies supreme authority, and the right of 
possession. How fully man has established 
his dominion, may be seen in what he has 
accomplished. He has searched the interior 
of the earth, and brought to the surface, 
gold, silver, precious stones, coal, iron, gas, 
oil and many other useful minerals. He has 
subjected the surface of the earth to his 
dominion. He has tunnelled the mountain, 
built railroads, and canals, and dammed 
back the seas, irrigated the deserts, and 
made them to " blossom like a rose ". He 
controls the planting and harvesting of 
19 



In The Beginning 

grain, and other useful plants. He has 
subjected the domestic animals to his use, 
and driven the wild beasts back from the 
habitation of man. By means of canals, he 
has united the seas, and by the use of 
steamships, has subjected the seas to his do- 
minion and made them his servants. By the 
use of diving bells, and submarine boats, he 
has explored beneath the seas to some ex- 
tent. He has extended his dominion to the 
air, which he has compressed and used to 
turn mills and machinery for mining and 
suchlike. By the use of wireless teleg- 
raphy, he sends messages thousands of 
miles. By the use of balloons and airships, 
he travels through the air with incredible 
speed, and rises to enormous heights. 

Such is but an epitome of man's domin- 
ion. All this is within the rights of man. 
20 



Or The First Age 

" He was created to have dominion over 
the fish of the sea and over the fowls of the 
air, and over the cattle, and over all the 
earth ". Where does the dominion of man 
end, and the sovereignty of God begin? 
God is supreme over all. " I have made 
thee and thou art mine ". 

" Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish 
the earth" (Gen. 1:28). 

This is the first command that God gave 
to Adam and Eve, after He had made them 
and blessed them. These simple words are 
frought with the profoundest mystery of 
the creation. The power to reproduce their 
own species was given alike to all the animal 
and vegetable kingdoms. If we cannot un- 
derstand the manner in which animal and 
vegetable life reproduces its own species, 
how much more mysterious is the propaga- 
21 



In The Beginning 

tion of the human species, endowed as it 
is with immortality. Who can tell in what 
manner the soul enters the body? Is the 
soul, as well as the body, begotten by the 
parents ? When does the human child .be- 
come a living soul, reflecting the image and 
likeness of the Creator? 

Physiology teaches that just as soon as 
the male and female pronucleus unites life 
begins. Job says, " The spirit of God hath 
made me, and the breath of the Almighty 
hath given me life" (Job 33:4). Moses 
says, " God breathed into his nostrils the 
breath of life, and man became a living 
soul." Let him who knows, answer. 

" And God said, behold, I have given you 
every herb bearing seed, which is upon the 
face of all the earth, and every tree, in 



22 



Or The First Age 

which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; 
to you it shall be for meat " (Gen. i : 29). 

Man in his pristine innocence, was per- 
mitted to eat of every herb and tree bear- 
ing seed, which was upon the earth, except 
the tree of light and knowledge. But after 
Adam ate of the forbidden fruit, and 
brought sickness and death on the human 
family, as well as light and knowledge, God 
cursed the ground for his sake, causing it 
to bring forth thorns and thistles. Many 
plants and trees, the fruit of which bears 
seed, are now poisonous to man, that were 
formerly fit for food. Man must now use 
the knowledge that he gained by eating of 
the tree of light and knowledge, to discrim- 
inate between the poisonous and the edible. 

" And God saw everything that he had 



In The Beginning 

made, and behold it was very good " (Gen. 

1:31). 

When God created man, He pronounced 
him very good, and that is the only way 
that he will ever be wholly acceptable to 
Him again. The fact that man is death- 
doomed and imperfect as a result of his dis- 
obedience and sin, is no proof of a change 
in the Divine plan to have him very good. 
But the way back to human perfection is 
hard to find, and still harder to walk upon. 

In view of the seemingly inaccessible 
heights of human perfection, and the dan- 
gers that lurk in our path at every stage of 
life's journey we may well ask, "If thou, 
Lord, mark iniquities, who shall stand ? " 
To the heart cry of every penitent soul this 
is the answer : " My grace is sufficient for 
thee." " Ask, and it shall be given you." 
24 



Or The First Age 

Why then need we faint or fear, now that 
we can ask and be sure of receiving, can 
seek and be sure of finding, can knock and 
be sure that the door will be opened unto 
us? 



In The Beginning 



CHAPTER III. 

The first chapter of Genesis sets forth in 
detail the days in which certain parts of 
the creation were completed, allowing six 
days to complete the whole. Whether the 
six days mentioned here were days of 
twenty-four hours each, has long been a 
matter of dispute. When geology revealed 
the fact that the earth was of gradual form- 
ation, and was immensely older than the 
six thousand years, which the older bible 
chronology gave it, doubt and suspicion 
naturally arose as to the truth of the bible 
account. This seeming conflict between ge- 
ology and the bible led many of the scientists 
to reject the bible entirely. If those men of 
26 



Or The First Age 

science who rejected it would have taken the 
pains to carefully and candidly study it, they 
would have found that it is in harmony with 
science. Hugh Miller, who was well 
acquainted with geology, and was also a 
firm believer in the inspiration of the bible, 
in his book " Footsteps of the Creator ", 
says, " It is truly wonderful how thoroughly 
in its general scope, the revealed pieces on 
to the geological record. By piecing the 
two records together, — that in the revealed 
scripture and that revealed in the rocks — 
records which, however geologists may mis- 
take the one, or commentators misunder- 
stand the other, have emanated from the 
same great Author; we learn that in slow 
and solemn majesty has period succeeded 
period, each in succession ushering in a 
higher and yet higher scene of existence, — 
27 



In The Beginning 

that fish, reptiles, mammiferous quadrupeds, 
have reigned in turn, — that responsible man, 
made in the image of God, and with do- 
minion over all creatures, ultimately en- 
tered into a world ripened for his reception : 
but, farther, that this passing scene, in which 
he forms the prominent figure, is not the 
final one in the long series, but merely the 
last in the preliminary series : and that that 
period to which bygone ages, incalculable in 
amount, with all their well proportioned 
gradations of being, form the imposing 
vestibule, shall have perfection for its occu- 
pant, and eternity for its duration." 

Many bible scholars believe that the whole 
story of creation is either allegorical or 
mythical, and that Moses, who himself, was 
a Hebrew, naturally used the Hebrew 
week, in order to make the creation consist 
28 






Or The First Age 

with their custom of six days' labor ending 
with the seventh as a day of rest. Those 
who believe the bible to be the inspired word 
of God cannot accept the opinion, that 
Moses made a mistake when he wrote the 
narrative. They claim that we must either 
believe its statements about the creation or 
admit that it is not inspired, and there seems 
to be no other logical conclusion. 

The whole question therefore hinges on 
just what Moses taught. This seeming con- 
flict between the physical sciences, and the 
bible, has led to a variety of opinions as to 
what the sacred text actually teaches in re- 
gard to the matter. 

The writer will not at this time give the 
opinions of those who hold the allegorical 
and mythical views concerning the narra- 
tive, but will confine himself to the views 
29 



In The Beginning 

of those who believe the narrative to be the 
inspired word of God. 

Even among this class, there are a variety 
of opinions. The writer has only room here 
to give a few of these opinions. The first 
group embraces those who claim that 
Moses does not teach that God created the 
heaven and the earth during the creation 
week. 

The second group claims that the three 
first days of the creation, before the sun 
was created, may have been atonic days, or 
vast cosmic periods, during which the va- 
rious strata of the earth were formed. 

It is worthy of note that either of these 
theories would take away the last apparent 
conflict, and make the bible account consist 
with the modern teaching of geology, with- 
out doing violence to the sacred text. 
30 



Or The First Age 

Still another class of people who contend 
that the period of creation was much longer 
than six days of twenty-four hours each, 
base their belief on that passage of scripture 
found in Second Peter 3:8, " One day is 
with the Lord as a thousand years, and a 
thousand years are as one day." If this 
passage had any reference to the length of 
days in the creation, what a field for specula- 
tion it would open. The toil and suffering 
of the human family might end at the close 
of six thousand years, and the seventh thou- 
sandth year might usher in the millennial 
sabbath, and so on ad infinitum. 

It would be a beautiful theory, if it did 
not have the slight defect, that Peter had 
no reference whatever to the creation. He 
was speaking of Christ's coming judgment, 
and simply meant that the purposes of God 
31 



In The Beginning 

are not worked out according to the wishes, 
and time set by man. 

The fourth class holds, that God created 
the universe and all it contains in six days of 
twenty-four hours each. That He has sub- 
jected it to all the uniform and necessary 
laws, that now govern it. But that God is 
not bound by any laws that He has made, 
He may suspend, modify, or abolish them 
if He chooses to do so. 

That there is an order of facts, superior 
to the natural, that is, the supernatural. 
In order to understand their position, we 
must have a clear conception of the differ- 
ence between what' is natural and what is 
supernatural. 

The natural is everything outside of the 
spiritual. The natural is in the region of 
necessity. 

32 



Or The First Age 

The supernatural is God. It embraces in- 
finity. It is beyond the natural, and cannot 
be comprehended by it. 

The exercise of the supernatural gives 
rise to the miraculous. Here the contro- 
versy with science starts. 

Scientists have always questioned the 
miraculous, on the ground that miracles are 
a violation of natural laws, and men seem 
to fall into difficulties about them. 

A miracle is no violation of any law of 
nature, it presupposes laws of nature. It is 
an act of God that transcends these laws. 

For instance, if a man tosses a ball into 
the air, he does not abolish the law of gravi- 
tation, that law still continues to act, he 
simply overcomes it by a superior force. 
The natural laws, if left to themselves, go 
on with absolute uniformity, the earth 
33 



In The Beginning 

moves, the rivers run steadily to the sea, the 
sea finds its own level, strata of coal and 
rock slowly form in the earth. 

But when the supernatural interposes, the 
natural is set aside for the time being, the 
sun and moon stand still, the Red sea is 
divided, the river Jordan is stopped, the 
iron axe-head swims, and etc. 

Those who hold the opinion that God 
created the universe in six days, admit that 
geologists are probably correct in their de- 
ductions from the natural laws as they now 
exist, but claim, that the supernatural law 
governed at the time of the creation. 

In other words, that the universe was 
created before the natural laws that now 
govern it were established. The author does 
not presume to say, which of these opinions 
are correct, but leaves the reader to judge 
for himself. Much can be said in favor of 
34 



Or The First Age 

them all, and many writers of distinction, 
both ancient and modern, are found in each 
class. There is no difficulty in believing 
that God could have created the universe 
in six days, had He desired to do so, unless 
we deny His power to create at all, and that 
would be a practical denial of His existence, 
a ground that no man can take without re- 
nouncing his reason and common sense. 

William Cowper, the great English poet, 
and able theologian of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, was one who so believed. His opinion 
is best expressed in his " Task ", where he 
wrote of those 
* * * " who drill and bore 
The solid earth and from the strata there 
Extract a register, by which we learn 
That He who made it, and revealed its date 
To Moses, was mistaken in its age." 



In The Beginning 



CHAPTER IV. 

" Thus the heavens and the earth were 
finished, and all the host of them. And on 
the seventh day God ended His work which 
He had made, and He rested on the seventh 
day from all His work which He had made. 
And God blessed the seventh day, and sanc- 
tified it : because that in it He had rested 
from all His work which God created and 
made " (Gen. 2: 1-3). 

The sabbath day was originally the 
seventh day of the week. It was appointed 
as a special means for the purpose of culti- 
vating the moral dispositions of mankind, 
and as a day of rest for mankind, and for 
all beasts that labor. 

36 



Or The First Age 

It was of divine institution, and, there- 
fore, we are bound to conform to the obli- 
gation imposed on us in the scriptures con- 
cerning it. 

While the proof of its obligation is to be 
sought for only in the Word of God, ex- 
perience has taught that periods of rest are 
necessary for the welfare of both man and 
beasts. As the recurrence of night shows 
the necessity of repose, so the recurrence of 
the sabbath indicates the necessity of com- 
plete mental and physical rest. 

It is a well established fact that animals 
which are allowed one day in seven for rest, 
live longer and enjoy better health, than 
those which are worked without such inter- 
mission. The same is equally true of man. 

Now, concerning the scriptural authority, 
we may say that it was given to our first 
37 



In The Beginning 

parents, and, of course, to all their descend- 
ants, which includes the whole human race. 
" God blessed it " ; that is, bestowed upon it, 
a peculiar blessing that was not bestowed on 
the other six days of the week. Surely this 
must then be the day of days, the day which 
God intended to be devoted to His worship, 
and for the purpose of cultivating in our- 
selves moral excellence, and to prepare us 
for the eternal sabbath. 

He sanctified it; that is, set it apart for 
a special purpose, separated it from the com- 
mon days, and made it a day of sacred and 
religious use. 

The reason given is, that God rested on 
this day, and sanctified it, that is, the day. 
The act refers not to any particular race, 
but to the day itself. The object is general, 
it includes all races of mankind. Surely all 






Or The First Age 

men need the rest which it enjoins. There 
is no race or people, nor individual, who 
does not need the moral cultivation that 
goes with the proper keeping of the sabbath. 

There are many proofs that the hebdom- 
adal division of time was known and ob- 
served by all the principal nations of the 
earth from the very twilight of existence. 
Numerous instances are found in the Greek 
and Roman classics where they observed 
the seventh day, and considered it peculiarly 
sacred. 

I mention this merely to show that the 
sabbath was kept by all the races of man- 
kind during the ages preceding the estab- 
lishment of the Mosaic sabbath. 

There are several passages in the scrip- 
tures that indicate that the patriarchs ob- 
served the sabbath long before the time of 



In The Beginning 

Moses. In Genesis 4:3, we read, " And in 
process of time, it came to pass that Cain 
brought of the fruit of the ground an offer- 
ing to the Lord ". The words rendered, 
" in process of time ", literally mean, " at 
the end of days ", and probably mean at the 
end of the week, or the seventh day. If 
this be the correct rendering of this scrip- 
ture, it shows that Cain and Abel, were 
acquainted with the hebdomadal division of 
time, and further, that they used the seventh 
day as a day of religious worship. There 
are also indications that Noah was ac- 
quainted with the same division of time. 

The command to enter the ark was given 
seven days before the flood came. He al- 
lowed seven days to elapse between the 
times of sending forth the dove. Joseph 
also devoted seven days, or one whole week, 
40 






Or The First Age 

to the mourning for his father, (Gen. 
50 :io) . These passages show that the early 
patriarchs were acquainted with the heb- 
domadal division of time, and probably kept 
the seventh day according to the original 
command of God. 

The next mention of the sabbath day is 
found in Exodus 16: 22-30. The reader is 
requested to read this passage, as it is too 
long to insert here. It clearly sets forth the 
fact, that the people thoroughly understood 
the command of God concerning the sab- 
bath, as they were commanded on the sixth 
day to gather enough manna to last over 
the sabbath day, for, " to-morrow is the rest 
of the holy sabbath unto the Lord ". This 
is the last mention of the sabbath day pre- 
vious to the giving of the law. 

Whatever may be the opinions of individ- 
41 



In The Beginning 

uals concerning the sabbath, God considered 
it so important that He incorporated it in 
the twelve laws that He wrote with His 
own finger, and handed to Moses, amidst 
the thunderings and lightnings of Mount 
Sinai. From this time on, the ancient 
Hebrews attached a sacred reverence to it. 
So sacred did they hold it that on the oc- 
casion of Jesus' disciples plucking the ears 
of corn as they passed through a field on 
the sabbath day, that they considered it a 
violation of the law, which forbade har- 
vesting on the sabbath. 

Jesus was also censured for healing the 
sick on the sabbath, on the ground that the 
law forbade medical aid, except in danger 
to life. This strict rendering of the law, 
by the Scribes and Pharisees, however, made 
it a burden, instead of a blessing to the 
42 



Or The First Age 

people, and brought forth the condemnation 
of Jesus, who informed the Scribes and 
Pharisees that, " Man was not made for the 
sabbath, but the sabbath for man ", and 
that, " The Son of Man was Lord over the 
sabbath also " (Mark 2 : 27-28). 

The principal reasons for the change of 
the sabbath, from the seventh to the first 
day of the week, were as follows : the resur- 
rection of our Lord took place on the first 
day of the week; his appearance to his 
disciples was on that day; and eight days 
later, or, on the following first day of the 
week, He made His second appearance 
(Jas. 20: 26). 

The day in which the Holy Ghost was 
given, as recorded in Acts 2, was the first 
day of the week, and, according to a pas- 
sage found in " The Epistle of Barnabas ", 
43 



In The Beginning 

the ascension may have also taken place on 
the first day of the week. 

Notwithstanding all this, the change from 
the seventh to the first day of the week was 
long and stubbornly contested. As long as 
Judaism controlled the early church, the 
Jewish sabbath was observed. Shortly after 
Pentecost, when Christianity had been 
carried to places where the daily worship 
which had been conducted in the temple be- 
came impossible, the first day of the week 
was set apart for this purpose. 

The account given in Acts 20 : 7, shows 
that the disciples in Troas, met regularly 
the first day of the week, for exhortation, 
and the breaking of bread. 

About the year A.D. 96, it was designated 
by the Apostle John as the Lord's Day 
(Rev. 1: 10). Probably by reason of the 
44 



Or The First Age 

sacred memories and associations that it 
commemorated. 

It was thus designated by nearly all the 
Christian writers in the century following 
the apostolic days. Ignatius, Eusebius, and 
Pliny all spoke of the Lord's Day, as a 
day of sacred worship and devotion. 
Justin, Martyr, was the first to call it Sun- 
day. He says, " On the day called Sunday, 
town and country Christians gathered to- 
gether in one place for prayer, instruction 
and the distribution of bread and wine, be- 
cause Jesus Christ on the same day arose 
from the dead/' But among the Jewish 
Christians, and many of the Gentile Chris- 
tians as well, there was a strong tendency 
to keep the sabbath also. The instruction 
in the Apostolic Constitution, was, " Hold 
your solemn assemblies and rejoice every 
45 



In The Beginning 

sabbath day, and every Lord's Day ". And 
the same authority says, " Let the slaves 
work five days, but on the sabbath day, and 
the Lord's Day, let them have leisure to go 
to church for instruction in piety," etc. 

Paul had taught from the beginning, that 
the Jewish sabbath was not binding on the 
Gentile Christians (Rom. 14: 5; Gal. 4: 10; 
Col. 2 :i6). 

This doctrine of Paul's, however, led to 
a bitter controversy with those who still kept 
the Jewish sabbath. This controversy con- 
tinued until the meeting of the Council of 
Laodicea in A.D. 363. This council issued 
a decree condemning those who kept the 
Jewish sabbath, and forbade Christians 
from resting on the sabbath day. 

From this time on the Christian sabbath 
was transferred from the seventh to the 

46 



Or The First Age 

first day of the week. However, there are 
those even to this day — notably the Seventh 
Day Adventists — who keep the Jewish sab- 
bath, declaring that there is no divine au- 
thority for the change. It is clear enough 
from what has been said that the inspired 
apostles kept the first day of the week as the 
Christian sabbath. If any person is dissat- 
isfied with these reasons, and feels under 
obligation to observe the seventh day, there 
is no precept in the Word of God to forbid 
him. 

Ever since the Council of Laodicea issued 
their decree, all the Christian nations have 
enacted laws regulating the sacred function 
of the Lord's Day. And whether instigated 
by sentiment or by divine authority, it is 
now recognized and established by law. 

As God severely reprimanded the children 
47 



In The Beginning 

of Israel for going out to gather manna on 
the sabbath day — although they found none 
— so He will punish those who profane it 
in the present day. " Be not deceived ; God 
is not mocked; for whatsoever a man 
soweth, that shall he also reap " (Gal. 6:7). 
" Because sentence against an evil work is 
not executed speedily, therefore, the heart 
of the sons of men are freely set in them 
to do evil" (Eccl. 8:2). 

But time, either long or short, has neither 
power nor tendency to change the order of 
an established sequence. The punishment, 
however tardy, must come to those who 
profane the sabbath. The offense is never 
expiated. 

Moral degeneracy rapidly intervenes, and 
religious restraint fast loses its hold, on 
that young man or woman, who, having been 
48 



Or The First Age 

educated in the fear of God, begins to spend 
the sabbath day in idleness and pleasure. 

Reader, cannot you see how imperative is 
the duty of keeping the sabbath day, ex- 
tending as it does to all those committed to 
our charge, our children, our servants, and 
even to the brute creation? 

Neither does the duty of keeping the sab- 
bath day holy rest on the civil authorities. 
It is our duty. It arises solely from our re- 
lations to God, and not from our relations 
to man. The head of every family is 
obliged to keep the sabbath himself, and to 
use every means in his power to secure its 
observance by those committed to his care. 
The day belongs to God, — we have no right 
to use it ourselves, to purchase it from. 
others, nor have others a right to barter it 
away for wages. The most solemn threat- 



In The Beginning 

filings are uttered against those who pro- 
fane it, and the greatest reward promised 
to those who keep it (Isa. 56:26; Jer. 
17:24-25; Neh. 13: 15-21). For a more 
exhaustive study of the sabbath day, see 
" Wayland's Elements of Moral Science ", 
from which much of the above is merely an 
abridgment. 



50 



Or The First Age 



CHAPTER V. 

" These are the generations of the 
heavens and of the earth when they were 
created, in the day that the Lord God made 
the earth and the heavens " (Gen. 2:4). 

" The generations of the heavens and of 
the earth ", refers to the first progenitors 
(protoplasts) of the various species of ani- 
mal and plant life. God made them all be- 
fore they grew in the ground. 

" In the day that the Lord God made the 
earth and heavens ". The word day, is 
used here in the sense of age, time or period, 
i.e., the six days during which God created 
the things mentioned. 

" And the Lord God planted a garden 
51 



In The Beginning 

eastward in Eden; and there He put the 
man whom He had formed" (Gen. 2:8). 
The location of the garden of Eden has 
passed from human knowledge. We are 
told that it was " eastward in Eden ", that 
is, east of where the writer was when he 
wrote the narrative, but we do not know 
where the writer was when he wrote the 
story. Neither do the meagre details of the 
garden itself furnish a sufficient clew. Of 
the trees and plants in the garden, we are 
only told of two, the tree of light and knowl- 
edge, and the tree of life. These remark- 
able trees that so much concern the human 
family are as mysterious as the location of 
the garden itself. 

One of the four rivers that parted from 
the main river that watered the garden, has 
been identified as the Euphrates. The river 
52 



Or The First Age 

Hiddekel, has generally been accepted as the 
Tigris. But, of the Pison, and the Gihon, 
we know nothing. No rivers which to- 
gether with the Tigris and Euphrates have 
been found to fulfil the description. There 
is no river on the face of the earth that 
meets the description by becoming the source 
of four other rivers. 

The difficulty of locating the garden has 
led to many strange constructions being 
placed on the narrative. Scholars who have 
written on the subject may be put into three 
classes. First, those who believe the nar- 
rative to be actual history. Second, those 
who believe it to be allegorical. Third, 
those who believe it to be mythical. Among 
that class of scholars who believe the narra- 
tive to be actual history, a great diversity 
of opinion exists as to its probable location. 
53 



In The Beginning 

Josephus, Calmet and Rosenmuller, believed 
it to be located in the highlands of Armenia. 

Calvin, Huet, and Bochart, placed it in 
lower Babylonia. The site of Eden has 
been located in every quarter of the globe, 
but no one has been able to establish its iden- 
tity with any degree of certainty. 

The difficulty of identity has led to many 
allegorical and mythical interpretations of 
the story. Thus, Philo believed that, the 
narrative was allegorical and thought that 
Eden was a symbol of the soul that delights 
in virtue, and the four rivers represented 
prudence, temperance, courage and justice: 
Origen supposed Eden to be heaven, and 
the rivers wisdom. Coleridge, who is a 
modern scholar, also interpreted it as alle- 
gory. 

Another class of writers who do not be- 
54 






Or The First Age 

lieve the story to be actual history, lean to 
the belief that it is mythical tradition, such 
as is found in the traditions of most ancient 
nations. 

Believing as I do, that the bible is the 
very word of God, delivered to us from the 
hands of inspired writers, I cannot accept 
either the mythical or allegorical interpre- 
tations, but cling to the belief that it is 
actual history. 

Why then cannot we find traces of the 
garden? In reply to this question, I will 
say, that we are now six thousand years dis- 
tant from the time when God planted the 
garden, and wrench of earthquake, beating 
of the tempests, and the erosions of time, 
may have wrought such changes on the sur- 
face of the earth during that time, as to ob- 
literate every trace of the garden. Again, it 
55 



In The Beginning 

is known that the deluge wrought many 
changes in the topography of the earth. 
Much of the earth's surface that is now cov- 
ered with water, was probably dry land be- 
fore the deluge. Are we not told that, 
" The fountains of the great deep were 
broken up, and the windows of heaven were 
opened. And the rain was upon the earth 
forty days and forty nights ", covering the 
whole earth " fifteen cubits and upwards ", 
and that the mountains were also covered? 
(Gen. 7: 11-12). 

This vast volume of water, and the ele- 
vations and subsidences of the earth's crust, 
due to the breaking up of the fountains of 
the great deep, may have left much of the 
earth's surface submerged that was dry land 
before. In such a case, the garden of Eden 
would be covered with water. It is possible 
56 



Or The First Age 

that the silt from such a volume of water, 
may have covered deeply with alluvial de- 
posits all the lowlands of that country, and 
thus have obliterated every trace of Eden. 

" And the Lord God commanded the man, 
saying, of every tree of the garden thou 
may est freely eat; but of the tree of the 
knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not 
eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest 
thereof thou shalt surely die (Gen. 
2: 16-17). 

It should not be thought a thing incred- 
ible, for God to talk with Adam, — He 
created him, and gave him intelligence and 
language, and was He not able to converse 
with him? Was He who enabled Adam to 
communicate his thoughts and affections to 
others not able to do the same Himself? 



57 



In The Beginning 

" The day that thou eatest thereof thou 
shalt surely die." 

When God put Adam in Eden, He set a 
barrier against lawless appetite, and an- 
nounced to him that self-indulgence and dis- 
obedience would bring death. The same 
day that Adam ate of the forbidden fruit he 
died in trespasses and sins. But the death 
penalty included more than spiritual death, 
it involved the death of the body also. 
" For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt 
thou return," was a part of the sentence. 
Our English translation of this passage 
does not convey the exact meaning of the 
original. The marginal reading " dying 
thou shalt die ", comes a little nearer to 
the meaning, but does not fully express it. 
It is quite evident that God did not intend, 
that the breath of life would leave Adam's 
58 






Or The First Age 

mortal body the same day that he partook 
of the tree of light and knowledge, for it 
is written in the context, " In sorrow shalt 
thou eat of it (the ground) all the days of 
thy life," and again, " In the sweat of thy 
face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return 
unto the ground," thus showing that phys- 
ical death was deferred. The meaning of 
the text is, that Adam would pass under sen- 
tence of death at that time, but the sentence 
would not be speedily executed. 

Adam had been created pure and holy 
and as long as he remained in that blessed 
state of innocence he was invulnerable to the 
processes of mortality. But the penalty for 
eating the forbidden fruit was death, and 
when he ate of it, the status of his being was 
changed, and he became subject to death. 

Dissolution began as soon as he received 
59 






In The Beginning 

the sentence. Although it was nine hun- 
dred and thirty years, before the breath left 
his mortal body, and complete disintegration 
took place. Yet sorrow, pain and death, the 
world's wages for sin, began early to grieve 
his heart, and waste his body, as we learn 
from the tragedy that occurred in his family 
shortly after. I refer to the assassination 
of Abel by his brother Cain. It is one of the 
paradoxes of this life, that those who live 
the longest in this world, know the most of 
death. 

" Thy pilgrimage begins in tears, 
And ends in bitter doubts and fears, 
Or dark despair; 
Midway so many toils appear, 
That he who lingers longest here 
Knows most of care." 

Translation by Longfellow. 
60 



Or The First Age 

The next paragraph (Gen. 2:18-25) 
dealing with the creation of Eve, according 
to William R. Smith, editor Encyclopedia 
Brittanica, is introduced here to set forth 
the dignity and sanctity of the marriage re- 
lation. According to God's plan, marriage 
is not founded on sensual instinct, but is 
necessary to raise the human above the brute 
creation. The relation of the woman is one 
of dependence, but not of subjection. She 
is not the servant of the man, but a help- 
meet, literally equal to him, in fact, a part 
of him, without which he would not be 
complete. 

We learn from verse 24, that marriage is 
the closest relationship that exists. It is a 
union stronger than the ties of blood. 
u Therefore, shall a man leave his father 
and his mother, and shall cleave unto his 
wife: and they shall be one flesh." 
61 



In The Beginning 

The reader has probably noticed that the 
second chapter is partly a recapitulation of 
the first, and that between it, and the account 
given in the first chapter there is a difference 
in the order of creation. This discrepancy, 
though small and unimportant, has led to a 
great deal of controversy. 

The higher critics account for it in the 
following manner. That it was the custom 
of ancient historians, when they recorded 
data of previous authors, to excerpt from 
the various sources at their disposal the 
passages that were suitable for their pur- 
pose, and incorporated them into their own 
books in the original language of the au- 
thors, adding only enough of their own 
language to weld the various statements into 
a continuous story. They claim that Moses 
was no exception to this rule, that so far 



Or The First Age 

as the authorship of Genesis was concerned 
he was simply recording previous history. 

That he compiled and arranged pre-exist- 
ing documents into the book of Genesis. 
This, they claim, accounts for the discrep- 
ancy in the order of creation found between 
the accounts given in the two chapters, i.e., 
they were copied from two different ac- 
counts. But the critic has overlooked the 
very important fact, that God placed His 
stern negative upon this class of evidence in 
the following words : " Lo, I come unto thee 
in a thick cloud, that the people may hear 
when I speak with thee, and believe thee for- 
ever " (Exodus 19:9). 

The first chapter sets forth the orderly 
arrangement of the creation : light, atmos- 
phere, land and water separated, the sun and 
moon set in the heavens, vegetable then ani- 
63 



In The Beginning 

mal life, and finally man in the image of 
God with dominion over all. The narrative 
in the second chapter does not follow the 
same orderly arrangement as that of the first, 
for the very obvious reason that, that was 
detailed in the first. The central theme in 
the second chapter is man, and the provi- 
sions God made for his welfare; the institu- 
tion of the sabbath as a day of rest, the 
beginning of man's dominion, and the es- 
tablishment of the marriage relation. 

And while in it the creation of the animals 
separates the origin of the man and woman, 
it tells that God created them both and adds 
in detail that He formed man out of the 
dust of the ground, and woman out of a 
rib of the man. 

Much of the information found in Gene- 
sis, had, at first been oral tradition, carried 
64 



Or The First Age 

in the memory of the patriarchs, and handed 
down by them from generation to genera- 
tion. This being the only method of trans- 
mission known before mankind learned the 
art of writing. To what extent these oral 
traditions were inspired we are not told, but 
we are told that Moses was inspired, and 
Paul tells us that " All scripture was given 
by inspiration of God." Peter also informs 
us that, " Holy men of God spake as they 
were moved by the Holy Ghost." 

From these scriptures we reason that the 
oral traditions of the patriarchs were fully 
inspired, and that the Genesis account in- 
stead of being " a scrap book collection of 
myths and traditions " such as the higher 
critics would have us believe it to be, it is 
the true history of the creation. 



65 



In The Beginning 



CHAPTER VI. 

" Now the serpent was more subtle than 
any beast of the field which the Lord God 
had made. And he said unto the woman, 
yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every 
tree of the garden? " (Gen. 3:1). 

It is easy to understand how God could 
talk with Adam, for He created him, and 
taught him language, but what about the 
speaking serpent? To say that God gave 
the serpent the power of speech, intelligence, 
and cunning that enabled him to beguile the 
woman, would assign to God qualities, that 
IHe does not possess. " God is not the au- 
thor of confusion ". Such a statement 
would be tantamount to making God the 
66 



Or The First Age 

author of man's disobedience. We must 
look to some other source than the divine, 
for the author of that cruel intrigue. Who, 
then, was the tempter? I think in the light 
of subsequent revelations, we are warranted 
in asserting, that it was Satan, the same old 
serpent that has insinuated his venom into 
the whole human family. 

Who, but Satan, was capable of such a 
crime? A crime, that would bring sorrow, 
suffering and death upon an innocent race, 
when he knew it could have no possible ad- 
vantage to himself, and could result in noth- 
ing but disaster to all concerned. 

Of the three characters connected with 
the fall, Satan was the only one capable of 
knowing the full import of God's punish- 
ment for their disobedience. He alone had 
felt the stern justice of God, when he had 
67 



In The Beginning 

been cast out of heaven for disobedience, 
and knew that if God " spared not the 
angels that sinned, but cast them down to 
hell" (2 Pet. 2:4), that He would not 
spare Adam and Eve, if they transgressed 
the commandment that forbade them to eat 
of the tree of light and knowledge. 

Many able writers, both ancient and mod- 
ern, hold, that the serpent that beguiled Eve 
in the garden was not Satan. Their opin- 
ions for the most part are based on the fol- 
lowing reasons: First, that the serpent is 
everywhere mentioned in the Old Testa- 
ment as only a beast. Second, that, the 
name of Satan was unknown in Hebrew 
literature until after the death of Moses, 
who wrote the narrative. Third, the pun- 
ishment was suitable only for a serpent and 
not that of a fallen angel. 

68 



Or The First Age 

If you, dear reader, should be one of 
those who so believe, I will not wrangle 
with you about it. Nay, but I will agree 
with you this far, that of all the beasts 
which the Lord God created, the serpent 
seems the most capable of such a crime. I 
am sure, that the ox, the ass, the camel, the 
elephant, the reindeer, faithful friends of 
man, neither of them would do such a thing. 
The lion, the leopard, the tiger, no flesh-eat- 
ing animal would do it — they slay only when 
impelled by hunger. But the serpent, look 
at it, as it crawls on its belly. It has neither 
wings, legs, nor fins, with which to propel it- 
self, neither horns, hoofs, nor armor of any 
kind, with which to defend itself, and yet 
naturalists say, that, " It can outclimb the 
monkey, outrun the deer, outswim the fish, 
and with every inch of its sinewy length 



In The Beginning 

it can strangle and crush, either man or 
beast," by aid of the noiselessness of its 
movements it will creep up unseen and un- 
heard, and bury its poisonous fangs in your 
flesh. Look at it again as it lies coiled upon 
the ground ready to strike — the subtle, cun- 
ning, cold, cruel, treacherous, poisonous ser- 
pent. Yes, the serpent could do it, but be- 
yond this, I cannot agree with you. 

While it is true, that the name, Satan, is 
not mentioned in the scriptures for many 
years after the death of Moses, this does 
not prove that Satan did not exist ages be- 
fore man became aware of his existence. 
There are several passages in the early 
Hebrew writings that clearly indicates that 
the Hebrews believed in an evil spirit or 
influence that was at work in the world. 
These passages will be referred to later. 

70 



Or The First Age 

Later revelation distinctly teaches that 
the serpent was Satan. John says, " And 
the great dragon was cast out, that old ser- 
pent, the devil and Satan, which deceived the 
whole world " (Rev. 12:9). 

Here we are told that the serpent was 
Satan and that it was he who deceived the 
whole world. The only explanation that I 
can give of the matter is, that by some in- 
fernal inherent power that Satan must have 
possessed, he changed himself into the form 
of the serpent, probably because the serpent 
was the most subtle and cunning beast that 
the Lord God had made, and was less liable 
to arouse the suspicions of Eve. 

As this is our first introduction to his 

Satanic majesty, it may not be amiss at this 

time to study the origin and character of 

this malicious and cruel " adversary of God 

71 



In The Beginning 

and man ", as God has seen fit to reveal it 
to us from time to time; in the early ages 
through His holy prophets, and later by His 
Son, our Lord and Savior. 

Is Satan a part of God's creation? I an- 
swer yes, God created Satan, but He did 
not create him a devil. God created him 
an angel of light, but he sinned and fell 
from that high state, fell from heaven to 
hell (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6). 

Jesus, Himself, on the occasion of the 
return of the seventy, said, " I saw Satan 
fall as lightning from heaven " (Luke 
10: 18). I think from these scriptures, we 
are warranted in concluding that Satan had 
once been an angel of light, but transgressed 
the law of God, and was cast out of heaven. 

The acknowledged " adversary of God 
and man ", Satan, the devil, was not so well 

72 



Or The First Age 

known among the ancient Hebrews, as he is 
to us of the Christian era, their knowledge 
of the personal character of the devil was 
gradually revealed to them. 

The name, Satan, as a personality, is only 
mentioned five times in the Old Testament, 
three of these are in the Book of Job. In 
Job i : 6-12, 2 : 1-7, where his cruel and 
malicious nature is first seen, when he ap- 
pears with the " sons of God " and becomes 
the willing persecutor of Job. His name is 
again mentioned in 1 Chron. 21 : 1, where, 
" Satan stood up and provoked David ", and 
in Zech. 3 : 1-2, where the prophet Zech- 
ariah, in a vision, saw " Joshua, the high 
priest, standing before the angel of the 
Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand 
to resist him ". 

In all other places where the word Satan 
73 



In The Beginning 

occurs it is used in the sense of an enemy 
or adversary. There are many passages, 
however, among the early writings of the 
Hebrews, which seem to indicate that the 
Hebrews believed in the devil (Lev. 17: 7; 
Deut. 32:17; Isa. 13:21, 34-14; Ps. 
106:37). 

There is a widespread belief that the 
Hebrews obtained their conception of the 
devil, from the Persians during their exile. 
It is true that Persian mythology taught the 
existence of a good and evil personality, but 
they had two deities of equal power, and 
influence, at work in the world. Ormuzd 
was the good spirit, and Abriman was the 
evil one, and was equal in power and influ- 
ence to Ormuzd. This belief of the 
Persians, the Hebrews are supposed to have 
imbibed during their captivity. It must be 
74 



Or The First Age 

apparent to every student of the bible that 
the devil of the scriptures, is very different 
from that of Persian mythology. The Per- 
sians taught that the evil spirit was a twin 
creator with the good, and claimed for him 
a rightful share of the homage of man. 
While the scriptural devil, powerful as he 
is, is subordinate to the will of Christ. 

The scriptures teach that God rules, not 
the devil. That all power on earth was 
given to His Son. That Jesus received this 
power from far different hands than that 
of the devil. " Devils hear his voice and 
obey." That Satan lied when he claimed 
to possess " all the kingdoms of the earth ", 
and that we shall answer at last to God and 
to none other. 

What material difference would it make, 
even if the Hebrews got their conception of 

75 



In The Beginning 

Satan from the Persians ? Are the Persians 
not descended from the sons of Noah? And 
may they not have retained in an imperfect 
manner the traditions of their ancestors? 
Certain it is that Jesus Christ, than whom 
there is no higher authority, believed and 
taught the existence and personality of the 
devil. According to the scriptures, the devil 
is protean in character, his form often 
changes but his substance remains the same. 
In whatever form the tempter may come, he 
is the devil still. 

He is compared to a fowler, a sower of 
tares, a wolf, a roaring lion, a serpent, a 
prince of this world, the prince of devils, 
and even appears as an angel of light. 
While his connection with the serpent in the 
garden of Eden is of late origin, it is not 
logical to conclude that the serpent was not 
76 



Or The First Age 

the devil. Neither does the fact that ancient 
Hebrew literature does not mention Satan's 
name, prove that he did not exist at that 
time. We must remember that much of the 
plan of God was not revealed to the patri- 
archs and prophets, but was reserved for the 
dispensation of Christ, 



77 



In The Beginning 



CHAPTER VII. 

There were three characters connected 
with the fall, Adam, Eve, and the serpent. 
Each of these received a separate sentence, 
according to the degree of their guilt, and 
in the order in which they transgressed. 

The serpent was the arch-conspirator in 
the case: It was he that conceived the cruel 
and malicious plot, that brought about the 
fall. With Satan the transgression was de- 
liberate and malicious. He alone of the 
three characters was capable of understand- 
ing the full import of violating God's com- 
mand concerning the forbidden fruit. 

The commandment had been given to 
Adam and by him transmitted to Eve, but 
78 



Or The First Age 

they both remembered it distinctly. Satan 
now entered upon the scene, looked the 
situation over, and decided to attack the 
woman, but why, we are not told. All the 
reasons that have been assigned for his 
choice of the woman, are merely conjectures. 
He approached the woman in the form of 
the serpent, and with all the cunning, and 
subtlety, that he possessed, asked her this 
simple question : " Yea, hath God said, Ye 
shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 
And the woman said unto the serpent, we 
may eat of the fruit of the trees of the gar- 
den; but of the fruit of the tree which is in 
the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye 
shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, 
lest ye die " (Gen. 3 : 1-3). 

God had not said to Adam " neither shall 



79 



In The Beginning 

ye touch it ", but that was implied in the 
commandment, and added by the woman. 

This shows how thoroughly she under- 
stood God's meaning. " And the serpent 
said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely 
die" (Gen. 3:4). This flat contradiction 
by Satan of what God had said, must have 
astonished the woman, and Satan, noticing 
the look of astonishment, hastens to take 
her mind off the matter of death, and adds 
in a persuasive manner, " God doth know 
that in the day ye eat thereof then your 
eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, 
knowing good from evil " (Gen. 3:5). 

Thus, the serpent insinuated that God was 
purposely keeping them in ignorance. This, 
together with the fact that, " the woman 
saw " — was convinced by the argument of 
Satan — " that the tree was good for food, 
80 



Or The First Age 

and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a 
tree to be desired to make one wise ", 
prompted her to eat of the fruit. " She took 
of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave 
also unto her husband with her : and he did 
eat, and the eyes of them both were opened " 
(Gen. 3:^-7). 

Satan had told the truth to this extent, 
their eyes were opened, but he had lied 
about the death penalty. God had not said 
anything about the special properties of the 
tree, but He had said " the day thou eatest 
thereof dying thou shalt die", (Margin). 
And God's word must stand, though it in- 
volved the sentence of death on them, and 
through them, all their posterity. 

How many innocent persons are lured by 
evil companions, into places of sin, just to 
see what is going on in the world — " To 
81 



In The Beginning 

have their eyes opened " — only to find them- 
selves naked and ashamed, resorting to ex- 
cuses that wither in the sight of God, as 
quickly as did the thin garments that their 
ancestors made of fig-leaves. " The eyes 
of them both were opened, and they knew 
that they were naked ". 

" And they heard the voice of the Lord 
God walking in the garden in the cool of the 
day" (Gen. 3:8). 

In this statement there is something 
subtle, and hard to render into English. 
The Hebrew word rendered " cool ", means 
" wind ", and the word rendered " walk- 
ing ", suggests any form of movement. A 
more literal translation would be, " They 
heard the voice of the Lord God moving in 
the garden in the wind of the day ". The 
thought expressed by Moses, as I under- 
82 



Or The First Age 

stand it, is, that the voice of God was borne 
to them on the wind. 

" And Adam and his wife hid themselves 
from the presence of the Lord God amongst 
the trees of the garden." That is to say, 
they hid so that they themselves could not 
see God, but God saw them and called to 
Adam : " Where art thou ? And he said, I 
heard thy voice in the garden, and I was 
afraid because I was naked; and I hid my- 
self ". And God said, " Who told thee that 
thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the 
tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou 
shouldst not eat? And the man said, The 
woman whom thou gavest to be with me, 
she gave me of the tree, and I did eat, and 
the woman said, the serpent beguiled me, 
and I did eat " (Gen. 3 : 9-13). 

Such is the story of the fall so far as 
83 



In The Beginning 

the three characters connected with it in 
the garden are concerned. God now called 
them to judgment. It may be well to notice 
that God had not forbidden the serpent to 
eat of the fruit of the tree. He had been an 
angel of light at one time, and for rebellion 
against God had been cast out of heaven. 
He already possessed light and knowledge, 
but Adam and Eve did not. It was partly a 
lack of knowledge on the part of Eve, that 
caused her to sin, but the sin of Satan was 
willful and premeditated. Therefore, there 
could be no forgiveness for him, " but the 
lack of knowledge on the part of Eve, of 
good and evil, left the way open for divine 
clemency" (Pastor Russell). And that 
clemency would come through the seed of 
the very person whom Satan had beguiled. 
God now called the guilty trio up for sen- 
84 



Or The First Age 

tence, and the serpent being the cause of 
the disobedience, was called to judgment 
first. 

A great many people believe that the devil 
thwarted the purpose of God when he in- 
duced the woman to eat of the forbidden 
fruit. This idea is erroneous, and without 
the slightest foundation in fact. In truth, it 
assisted in revealing the purpose of God, 
which he had purposed in His Son from 
the beginning (Ephes. 3:9-10-11). The 
context teaches that instead of being a vic- 
tory for Satan, it was the most sorrowful 
day that he ever knew. Listen to his sen- 
tence : " Because thou hast done this, thou 
art cursed above all cattle, and above every 
beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou 
go, and dust shalt thou eat, (not literally 
to eat dust, but to eat of the things that 
85 



In The Beginning 

are the product of dust — or having the same 
elementary constituents that compose the 
earth) all the days of thy life; and I will 
put enmity between thee and the woman, and 
between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise 
thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel " 
(Gen. 3:14-15). Thou hast caused the 
woman to sin, and for this sin, she must 
bring forth children in sorrow, but her seed 
shall bruise thy head. Oh, Satan, thou art 
crushed by thine own iniquity. The seed of 
the woman whom thou hast this day de- 
ceived will drag thee to the dust, and to 
everlasting defeat. The woman whom thou 
hast deceived, she shall bring forth a Savior 
to redeem herself, and her seed, and He shall 
bruise thy head. " All bible commentators 
recognize in the seed, the serpent, and the 
woman, types of our Savior, of Mary, and 
86 



Or The First Age 

the devil. The enmity of Christ, the Seed, 
toward the evil one is absolute and perpet- 
ual (John J. Gibbons in The Faith of Our 
Fathers). 



87 



In The Beginning 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The sentence of the woman was shorter 
than that of the serpent or the man, less 
severe than that of the serpent, but more 
severe than that of the man, as it carried 
with it the heartache and heartbreak of 
motherhood, and a quickened and aggra- 
vated sense of suffering and sorrow. 

" Unto the woman he said, I will greatly 
multiply thy sorrow and thy conception : in 
sorrow shalt thou bring forth children; and 
thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he 
shall rule over thee " (Gen. 3 : 16). 

The anxiety and cares of motherhood 
have always been the chief source of wo- 
man's sorrow. As soon as conception takes 



Or The First Age 

place the mother's sorrow begins. A sense 
of dread as to how she will pass through the 
fell suffering of those who in sorrow travail 
in childbirth seizes her (according to the 
primal woe pronounced against her sex), 
and from the birth of the child until its 
death, if the mother should survive, her 
heart is always burdened with the cares and 
sorrows incident to the child's welfare. As 
high and exalted as was Mary in being se- 
lected to be the mother of our Lord, she 
could not escape the common lot of mothers. 
" Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy 
own soul also " (Luke 2 : 35). 

" And thy desire shall be to thy husband 
and he shall rule over thee ", or, as the mar- 
gin reads, " subject to thy husband ". Not 
in the same sense that a servant is subject to 
and ruled over by his master. She was 
89 



In The Beginning 

created equal to him, in fact, a part of him. 
(See comment on chapter 2; 18-28.) Her 
stronger passions of love and affection, make 
her a willing subject to his desire. It is in 
this way only that she becomes subject to her 
husband, and is ruled over by him. It is a 
willing subjection, not one of ownership. 

The sentence, as I understand it, included 
a common share in the death sentence with 
Adam, motherhood, and the cares and sor- 
rows incident thereto. 

The ancient Hebrews treated the woman 
as though her presence would pollute the 
sacred places of worship, and barred her 
from the sacred places in the temple, be- 
cause they believed that "Of the woman 
came the beginning of sin, and through her 
we all die" (Ecclesiasticus 25:24). But 
now since " her seed " has paid the penalty 
90 



Or The First Age 

for the broken law, " and the veil of the 
temple has been rent in twain from the top 
to the bottom ", she can enter into the sacred 
presence of her Lord, as the equal of her 
brother man. 

If the woman brought sin into the world 
she also brought a savior from sin, for be 
it remembered that Jesus Christ was solely 
the seed of the woman. He was not be- 
gotten by man according to the natural 
order of humanity. " As far as the sublime 
mystery of the incarnation can be reflected 
in the natural order, He received His hu- 
manity from the substance of His mother " 
(Gibbons). 

It may be well to say at this time, that, if 

" The seed of the woman " that was to 

bruise the serpent's head, had been naturally 

born instead of being conceived by the Holy 

91 



In The Beginning 

Ghost, He would have been wholly human, 
and as one of Adam's race, would have 
shared his corruption, and would Himself 
have needed a redeemer, and could not have 
redeemed humanity. 

After all is said that can be said, " It must 
be concluded that it was a woman's breast 
that pillowed the head of the infant Jesus, 
who nursed and cared for His early steps, 
who was the first to embrace Him at birth, 
and the last to receive His dying breath at 
Calvary, the last to leave the sepulchre after 
the burial, and the first at the grave the 
morning He arose from the dead " (Gib- 
bons), and the first to carry the message of 
the resurrection. " Go your way, tell His 
disciples and Peter that He goeth before 
you into Galilee" (Mark 16:7). 

" And unto Adam He said, because thou 

92 



Or The First Age 

hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, 
and hast eaten of the tree, of which I com- 
manded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of 
it : cursed is the ground for thy sake ; in 
sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of 
thy life; thorns and thistles shall it bring 
forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb 
of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt 
thou eat bread, till thou return unto the 
ground: for out of it wast thou taken: for 
dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou re- 
turn " (Gen. 3: 17-19). 

The sorrows of maternity was the lot of 
Eve, and the toil and sweat of labor, was 
the lot of Adam, but they both shared alike 
in the sentence of death. God had said to 
Adam, " The day thou eatest thereof dying 
thou shalt die," and he had eaten of the 
tree, and now the doom must fall. Sin must 
93 



In The Beginning 

be either punished or pardoned, and as yet, 
no means of pardon had been provided, and 
he must reap the consequences of his dis- 
obedience, even though it meant the loss of 
Eden, the toil and sweat of labor, and the 
return of his mortal body to the dust. 

" For dust thou art and unto dust shalt 
thou return." 

This part of the sentence was directed 
against the body only. Man is a dual being, 
composed of soul and body, his body was 
formed out of the dust of the ground. The 
ultimate constituents of the body are earthly, 
being composed of oxygen, hydrogen, car- 
bon, nitrogen, chlorine, phosphorus, sulphur, 
calcium, sodium, potassium, manganese, 
iron, fluorine and silicon, all of which were 
taken from the ground, and they must now 
return again to the ground, the great store- 
94 



Or The First Age 

house of nature, to be used over and over 
again in the animal and vegetable kingdom. 

If the elementary constituents of plant 
and animal life were to remain locked up in 
their created forms, after they had played 
their part in sustaining life, it would deplete 
the available supply of these elements. 
There could be but one result, nature would 
exhaust herself. 

But the other part of man, the life, in- 
tellect, and soul, that he received when God 
" breathed into his nostrils the breath of 
life ", that is immortal, and being of the 
substance of God, can only return to Him 
again to be " judged according to the deeds 
done in the body ". 

It would be interesting to know in what 
manner the sin of Adam and Eve is trans- 
mitted to their posterity, but no information 
9*5 



In The Beginning 

along that line is given, and the question re- 
mains one of the chief mysteries of all ages. 

There has always been a diversity of opin- 
ion as to which of the two, was mostly re- 
sponsible for the fall. The ancient Hebrews 
believed that " of the woman came the be- 
ginning of sin and through her we all die ". 
Other Jewish writers, however, taught that 
it was chiefly through Adam, that sin and 
death came into the world. Paul says, " By 
one man sin entered into the world, and 
death by sin" (Rom. 5: 12). 

It is well to remember that the man and 
his wife were considered one, and that in 
many places where the word " Adam " is 
mentioned, both progenitors are meant. 
" Male and female created He them : and 
called their name Adam, in the day when 
they were created" (Gen. 5:2). 
96 



Or The First Age 

While it is true that one parent can trans- 
mit certain infectious diseases, and some- 
times the mental and physical peculiarities 
of his, or herself, to the child, such is not 
the case with original sin. In this case both 
progenitors are equally contaminated. 



97 



In The Beginning 



CHAPTER IX. 

" And the Lord God said, behold, the 
man is become as one of us, to know good 
and evil ; and now, lest he put forth his hand, 
and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and 
live forever: therefore, the Lord God sent 
him forth from the garden of Eden, to till 
the ground from whence he was taken. So 
He drove out the man; and He placed at 
the east of the garden of Eden cherubims, 
and a flaming sword which turned every 
way, to keep the way of the tree of life " 
(Gen. 3: 22-24). 

" So He drove out the man ", notwith- 
standing that Adam had estranged himself 
from God by his disobedience, and had lost 
98 



Or The First Age 

his holy state, still God's benevolence was 
vouchsafed to him. He clothed him and 
his wife with skins, before He sent him forth 
to till the ground. 

The garden of Eden must have been a 
beautiful place, every tree, and plant, and 
flower was perfect, a perfect God had made 
them, and arranged them for the happiness 
and comfort of creatures made in His own 
image. How gloomy the prospect must 
have looked to Adam and Eve, when they 
were banished from the pleasant shade and 
walks of Eden, and from the personal pres- 
ence of God, to toil and sweat among the 
thorns and thistles of the earth in order that 
they might eat bread. 

Instinctively the mind turns to the final 
separation, when the wicked shall be ban- 
ished from the presence of God and go into 



In The Beginning 

torment, for the very cause that doomed our 
first parents to banishment from the garden. 

But as Adam could not remain in Eden 
after he had disobeyed God, neither can sin 
enter into the presence of God in the Eden 
of the soul. 

" The man is become as one of us, to 
know good and evil; and now lest he put 
forth his hand, and take also of the tree of 
life, and eat, and live forever : therefore, 
the Lord God sent' him forth from the 
garden " (Gen. 3 : 22-23). 

" The way of the tree of life " must be 
protected. If man had been permitted to 
eat of it he would have lived forever. I 
think the scripture clearly teaches that man 
was created in a state of innocence and holi- 
ness, and that it was the purpose of God, 
after he had fulfilled the number of his days 
100 



Or The First Age 

on earth, to translate him into His presence 
without passing through the ordeal of death. 
But he sinned, and as a result, his soul was 
defiled, and he lost his state of holiness, 
and became subject to death, with all the 
other ills, such as sorrow, sickness, and suf- 
fering, that are inseparable from death 
doomed and rebellious creatures. 

The sin of our first parents was not con- 
fined to themselves alone, but was trans- 
mitted to all their descendants in the natural 
order. God had decreed, that all living 
matter should reproduce its own kind, and 
man was no exception to the rule. Adam 
and Eve were now sinners, and, therefore, 
all their descendants would be sinners. 
" Behold," says David, " I was shapen in 
iniquity ; and in sin did my mother conceive 
me" (Ps. 51:5). 

101 



In The Beginning 

This passage clearly indicates that we 
have all inherited the transgression of our 
first parents, and are born enemies of God. 
This, I understand, to be original sin, so 
called, because we inherited it from our orig- 
inal ancestors. 

Why did God plant the tree of light and 
knowledge in the garden of Eden, where it 
was within reach of our first parents? As 
well might we ask how Satan, who was first 
created holy — as every being God created 
was — fell from his high state. Or, how 
could sin grow at all, where nothing but 
holiness was sown? These problems have 
engaged the attention of theologians for all 
time. Of course, we do not know to a cer- 
tainty. It is generally accepted that God 
created man and woman holy, and placed his 
law before them, to regulate their lives, but 

102 



Or The First Age 

left them free to choose, that they might 
prove their gratitude and love, to their cre- 
ator. How else could they prove their 
worth, than being left free to choose? The 
will to serve, was God's desire, not compul- 
sion to serve, and so, He left free the chance 
to stand or fall, that they might merit re- 
ward, or punish. " Behold, I set before you 
the way of life and the way of death " (Jer. 
21 : 8). Let those who question the wis- 
dom of God, first find a better plan. 



103 



In The Beginning 



CHAPTER X. 

"And Adam knew Eve, his wife; and 
she conceived, and bear Cain, and said, I 
have gotten a man from the Lord. And she 
again bear his brother Abel. And Abel was 
a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of 
the ground. And in process of time it came 
to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of 
the ground an offering unto the Lord. And 
Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his 
flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord 
had respect unto Abel and to his offering. 
But unto Cain and his offering He had not 
respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his 
countenance fell " (Gen. 4: 1-6). 

" And in process of time ". This sen- 

104 



Or The First Age 

tence literally means " at the end of days ", 
and probably meant the end of the week of 
seven days, or the sabbath day, the day 
sacrifices were usually offered. 

" And the Lord had respect unto Abel 
and his offering, but unto Cain and to his 
offering he had not respect ". Sacrifices 
were of two kinds, eucharistic and expia- 
tory. The eucharistic consisted of the fruits 
of the earth, the expiatory of a living ani- 
mal. The penalty for sin was death, but 
God would accept the life of the animal in- 
stead of the offender. Cain's sacrifice was 
eucharistic — one of thanksgiving — he ex- 
pected to be accepted without repentance, so 
God would not accept his offering. " And 
Cain was very wroth, and the Lord said 
unto Cain, why art thou wroth ? And why 
is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest 

106 



In The Beginning 

well shalt thou not be accepted? And if 
thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door." 
Or, if you had been so righteous as to need 
no atoning sacrifice, then I would have ac- 
cepted you, but since you are not, sin will 
lie in the way until you have removed it by 
an atoning sacrifice of sin offering. 

This, I think, is a correct inference, in 
the light of what the New Testament adds 
to it. Paul says, " By faith Abel offered 
unto God a more excellent sacrifice than 
Cain " (Heb. n : 4). John says, Cain slew 
Abel " because his own works were evil and 
his brother's righteous" (John 3: 12). 

Cain became so enraged at the expostula- 
tion of the Lord, that shortly after this, 
when the two " were in a field, he rose up 
against Abel his brother and slew him ". 
Thus Abel became the first martyr. 
106 



Or The First Age 

" And the Lord said unto Cain, where is 
Abel thy brother ? And he said, I know not : 
Am I my brother's keeper? " 

This brings up the question of our duty 
to our fellowmen. To offer scriptural evi- 
dence in support of a dogma, as universally 
accepted as man's obligation to his neighbor, 
seems almost like trifling with human intel- 
ligence. However, for the benefit of those 
who are not well acquainted with the scrip- 
tures, I will give a few quotations gathered 
at random from the hundreds of passages 
with which the Old and New Testaments 
abound. 

The following quotations from the 19th 
chapter of Leviticus, is a summary of the 
law of Moses on the matter. 

" Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, 
neither lie one to another." 
107 



In The Beginning 

" Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, 
neither rob him." 

" Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put 
a stumbling block before the blind." 

" Thou shalt not go up and down as a 
tale-bearer among thy people." 

" Thou shalt not hate thy neighbor in 
thine heart." 

:i Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any 
grudge against the children of thy people, 
but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 

Of our obligations to warn men of judg- 
ment to come, God has said through the 
prophet Ezekial, "If thou dost not speak to 
warn the wicked from his way, that wicked 
man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood 
will I require at thine hand " (Ezek. 33 : 8). 

Jesus said, " Whatsoever ye would that 



108 



Or The First Age 

men should do to you, do ye even so to 
them" (Matt. 7: 12). 

" Be kindly affectioned one to another 
with brotherly love" (Rom. 10: 12). 

" But if ye forgive not men their tres- 
passes neither will your Father forgive your 
trespasses" (Matt. 6:15). 

"If God so loved us we ought also to 
love one another " ( 1 John 4 : 11). 

" Love your enemies, and do good to them 
which hate you " (Luke 6 : 2j). 

From the above we learn that our duty to 
our neighbor includes benevolence, veracity, 
property, character, reputation, his future 
welfare, and extends to all mankind, the 
poor, the wicked, and even our enemies. 

" And now art thou cursed from the earth, 
which hath opened her mouth to receive thy 
brother's blood from thy hand; when thou 
109 



In The Beginning 

tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth 
yield unto thee her strength " (Gen. 
4: 11-12). 

Cain, who had been a tiller of the ground, 
was now cursed from the earth, and the 
earth that had drank his brother's blood was 
forbidden " henceforth to yield her strength 
to him ". He and his descendants must now 
look to some other source than the earth 
to find their daily bread. Hence, they be- 
came shepherds, and later developed me- 
chanical and musical arts. 

His descendants were the inventors of 
musical instruments, and the art of work- 
ing in brass and iron. 

" And Cain said unto the Lord, my pun- 
ishment is greater than I can bear ". Or, 
as the margin reads, " Mine iniquity is 
greater than that it may be forgiven." 
HO 



Or The First Age 

" And Cain went out from the presence 
of the Lord," that is, went out from the 
place of worship, and of divine manifesta- 
tion, " and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the 
east of Eden ". The land of Nod has no 
place in later geography. 

" And Cain knew his wife." Who was 
Cain's wife? This is a pertinent question, 
if asked in a spirit of reverence. 

" Since we know that Adam begat sons 
and daughters (Gen. 5:4), not named in 
any geneologies of his children, and do not 
know, of the existence of any other woman 
at that time," says Halman's Family Bible, 
" we conclude that she was his sister ; nor 
did Cain sin in marrying his sister, as there 
was a necessity for such a marriage at that 
time, and the law prohibiting them had not 
been given." " Sin is not imputed where 
ill 



In The Beginning 

there is no law" (Rom. 5: 13). Prof. L. 
T. Townsend suggests that, " The reader 
need not be in haste to accept the above 
opinion. It is worth remembering, that the 
murder of Abel occurred one hundred and 
thirty years after the creation of Adam, and 
that during this time, the sons and daughters 
of Adam, who were not mentioned in the 
geneological lists of his children, may have 
migrated to other parts of the country, and 
so increased in number, that it gave Cain an 
opportunity to find a wife beyond the con- 
fines of his own neighborhood that would 
not be closely related to him." 

" And she conceived, and bear Enoch, 
and he builded a city, and called the name of 
the city, after the name of his son, Enoch." 
The location of the city Cain built and called 



112 






Or The First Age 

for his son Enoch, like his descendants, has 
passed from human knowledge. 

The descendants of Cain run through 
six generations to the sons of Lamech, — 
who contracted the first polygamous mar- 
riage recorded — where they end. 

It is worthy of note that the rapid in- 
crease of sin in the world was through the 
line of Cain. 

The account of the descendants of 
Lamech are only interesting so far as they 
portray the beginning of the inventive genius 
of the human family. 

Lamech had two wives, Adah, and Zillah. 
Adah bore two sons, Jabel and JubeL 
" Jabel was the father of such as dwell in 
tents, and such as have cattle." Jubel " was 
the father of all such as handle the harp and 
organ." The majority of the descendants 
113 



In The Beginning 

of Lamech was through Jabel, the son of 
Adah. They were a nomadic family and 
dwelt in tents and were shepherds. The de- 
scendants of Jubel, his brother, were min- 
strels, devoted to the use of the harp and 
organ. The mechanical arts were developed 
in both branches of Lamech's family, that 
of the musical by Jubel, and that of metal- 
lurgy by Zillah's son, Tubal-cain. Thus, the 
two classes of artisans were of different ma- 
ternity. The character of Lamech is seen 
in his crazy " sword song ", which breathes 
the true spirit of the desert : 

" Adah and Zillah, hear my voice ; 
Ye wives of Lamech hear my speech, 
I have slain a man to my wounding, 
And a young man to my hurt. 
If Cain shall be avenged seven-fold, 

114 



Or The First Age 

Truly Lamech seventy-fold and seven." 

(Gen. 4:23-24.) 

Nobody knows what he meant. Whether 
he had killed a man, wanted to kill a man, 
was telling Adah and Zillah about Cain mur- 
dering Abel, or whether he was defying 
God, and putting his trust for vengeance in 
the swords that his son, Tubel-cain, had 
wrought, no one can say. 

It is easy to observe the increase of sin 
in the line of Cain, as compared with that 
of Seth. Lamech was the seventh from 
Adam in the line of Cain, and Enoch, who 
walked with God, and was translated to 
heaven, was the seventh from Adam in the 
line of Seth. 

Surely the children of Cain reaped the 
consequences of his sowing. How truly it 
115 



In The Beginning 

supports the bible statement that, " The in- 
iquities of the fathers, are visited upon the 
children." 

Father, mother, methinks I see you turn 
your gaze from this page, to something that 
lies asleep in the cradle, and from the very 
depths of your heart, murmur, my God, is 
it true ? And I answer, yea, verily. 



116 



Or The First Age 



CHAPTER XL 

Moses calls the fifth chapter of Genesis 
" The Book of the Generations of Adam ". 
In this chapter, the general plan of Moses 
begins to be developed. So far as the his- 
torical setting of the entire Book of Genesis 
is concerned, it seems to center around that 
line of patriarchs from whom the Hebrew- 
nation descended, the final separation of 
Israel from the other nations of the world, 
and their selection as the chosen people of 
God. Accordingly, the line of ancestors is 
traced from Adam through Seth, to Noah, 
the second father of mankind. The de^ 
scendants of Noah all disappear after the 
tenth chapter, except the line of Shem. 
117 



In The Beginning 

After the twenty-eighth chapter, Ishmael 
disappears, and Isaac alone remains. After 
the thirty-sixth chapter, Esau and his de- 
scendants disappear, and only Jacob, who 
was the father of Israel, was left. 

Thus, we see, that the early history of 
mankind, so far as it concerns the line of 
Jewish ancestors, is given, but beyond this, 
nothing is related. 

Aside from purely Hebrew history, a 
short account is given, of the creation of 
the heaven and the earth, the establishment 
of the sabbath day, the early history of man- 
kind in general, the beginning of sin in the 
world, the fall of man as the result of sin, 
and the beginning of the inventive genius 
of man in the line of Cain, and the final de- 
struction of the world by the flood. These 
circumstances are related in order to trace 
118 



Or The First Age 

the Jewish ancestors back to Adam, the 
father of mankind. 

It was not the purpose of Moses to write 
a clear and concise account of the profane 
history of the early ages. His purpose was 
to write the sacred history of that race who 
was destined to keep the oracles of God. 

For this reason many incidents of the 
other nations, that were purely profane his- 
tory, were omitted. 

Of the eight patriarchs in the line of Seth 
between Adam and Noah, we know very 
little. Particular mention is made only of 
two, Enos and Enoch. 

It has been said of Enos that he was the 
father of a praying people, this opinion be- 
ing based on the statement, " then began 
men to call upon the name of the Lord " 
(Gen. 4 : 26) . But men had called upon the 
119 



In The Beginning 

name of the Lord before this. Dr. Booth- 
royd and other prominent scholars translate 
this passage, " then began men to call them- 
selves by the name of the Lord," or what 
is equivalent, to call themselves the " sons 
of God ". 

We are told of Enoch, that he was the 
son of Jared and the father of Methusaleh, 
that he lived three hundred and sixty-five 
years, and was translated to heaven without 
dying. " And Enoch walked with God; and 
he was not; for God took him" (Gen. 

5:24). 

The phrase, " walked with God ", was 
also used of Noah, Abraham and others, 
and means a spiritual upright life. It is in- 
teresting in this connection to note that 
Enoch was the first palpable proof of im- 
mortality. 

120 



Or The First Age 

The New Testament throws a little more 
light on the character of Enoch. Jude tells 
us that he was a prophet, and cites one of 
his prophecies (Jude 14), and notes that he 
was the seventh from Adam, thus distin- 
guishing him from Enoch, the oldest son of 
Cain. From Hebrews 11:5 we learn. " By 
faith Enoch was translated that he should 
not see death; and was not found, because 
God had translated him: for before his 
translation he had this testimony, that he 
pleased God ". 

Under the name of this antediluvian pa- 
triarch, a book exists, which is quoted by 
Jude. This book has entirely disappeared 
except some fragments found in Ethiopia, 
among the Abyssinians, and published by 
Laurence in 182 1. Certain fragments of 
this book are undoubtedly of ancient origin, 
121 



In The Beginning 

but the larger part of the book is believed to 
have been written about the first century 
A.D., or, at least, interpolated by Christian 
Hebrews. 

The book had a very limited circulation, 
and probably belonged to a sect known as 
" Essenes ". The Abyssinians believed it 
to be one of the inspired books of the bible, 
but so far as I can learn, no other class of 
Christian people claims it to be inspired. 
But Jude cites it, and to say the least, this 
is evidence that it was esteemed as authority 
in his day. For a more extended account 
of this book, see Encyclopedia Brittanica, 
Vol. 2, page 175. 

Perhaps the most interesting thing found 

in the account of the antediluvian patriarchs 

is their longevity. We are led to inquire, 

what purpose God had in view in prolong- 

122 



Or The First Age 

ing their lives to such extreme length, and 
to what extent their long lives were due to 
natural causes, that is, to causes existing 
within themselves. 

In reply to the first question, I think we 
are justified in concluding, that it was for 
the purpose of transmitting to their pos- 
terity the incidents of their early history. 

We do not know at what age man first 
learned to reduce his thoughts to writing, 
and while it is thought to have been long 
before the time of Moses, there must have 
been a time, when man had no other than 
oral methods of transmission, so that the 
overlapping of their lives served a splendid 
purpose. 

The following table taken from Halman's 
Family Bible, shows the number of years 
that the patriarchs were contemporary with 
123 



In The Beginning 

each other, and will show how easy it was 
for them to hand such information down 
from generation to generation: 

Adam was contempo- Noah was contempo- 



rary with 




rary with 




Lamech 


56 years 


Lamech 


595 years 


Methusaleh 


243 " 


Methusaleh 


600 » 


Jared 


470 " 


Jared 


366 " 


Mahalaleel 


535 " 


Mahalaleel 


234 *a 


Cainan 


60s " 


Cainan 


179 3 



Enos 695 " Enos 84 " 

Shem, who is in the line succeeding Noah, 
was contemporary with Lamech 93 years, 
IMethusaleh 98 years, and with Noah, his 
father, 448 years, and, after the flood, with 
Abraham, 150 years and with Isaac 50 years. 

While it is true that the more perfect 
physical condition of the antediluvian may 
have retarded the process of mortality, and 

124 



Or The First Age 

thus aided in prolonging their lives, this con- 
dition of physical perfection itself, was not 
without a cause. I think we are warranted 
in concluding, that sin, which was the primal 
cause of death, had not at this early age 
acquired such a mortal tendency as it did 
later. With the wider spread of a con- 
tagious disease, there is a corresponding in- 
crease in malignancy. It is even so with sin. 
The more sin prevails, the shorter grows the 
term of life. Sickness, suffering, and death 
are after all nothing more or less than path- 
ognomonic symptoms of sin, " For the 
wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). 

Sickness, suffering, and death have always 
increased with the volume of sin. This 
theory is supported by the following scrip- 
ture, " My spirit shall not always strive with 
man, for that he also is flesh : yet his days 
125 



In The Beginning 

shall be an hundred and twenty years " 
(Gen. 6:3). And again, in the 90 Psalm 
we are told that the wrath of God shortened 
our days to " three score years and ten ", 
on account of the iniquities and secret sins 
of the people. 

Thus, from Adam to Noah, the average 
duration of human life had been shortened 
to one hundred and twenty years, and, from 
Noah to David, it was again reduced to 
seventy years, and in each case increase of 
sin in the world is given as the cause. And 
now, after the lapse of nearly six thousand 
years, if it was not for Christ, and the re- 
straining influence of Christianity at work 
in the world, nothing but the entire annihila- 
tion of the human family could cleanse it 
from iniquity. 



126 



Or The First Age 



CHAPTER XII. 

" And it came to pass, when men began 
to multiply on the face of the earth, and 
daughters were born unto them, that the 
sons of God saw the daughters of men that 
they were fair; and they took them wives 
of all which they chose. There were 
giants in the earth in those days; and also 
after that, when the sons of God came in 
unto the daughters of men, and they bear 
children to them, the same became mighty 
men which were of old, men of renown " 
(Gen. 6: 1-4). 

Perhaps no passage in the Old Testament, 
has caused more controversy than this one. 
It is difficult to understand just what is 
127 



Jfi The Beginning 

meant by the expression " sons of God ". 
The International Bible Students' Associa- 
tion, of which Pastor Russell is the chief 
exponent, teaches that, " Lucifer, an angel 
of high rank, had long cherished in his heart, 
ambitious designs. His thought being ex- 
pressed by the prophet Isaiah in the follow- 
ing words," ' I will ascend into heaven, I 
will exalt my throne above the stars of God ' 
(Isaah 14:13). And that, when Lucifer 
saw the first human pair, he was tempted to 
try to win their homage to himself, and set 
up a kingdom on earth of his own. 

Adam and Eve being a new order of be- 
ings, who possessed pro-creative powers, 
which no angel possessed, their offspring 
filling the earth would be his subjects, if he 
could win their homage from God. Thus 



128 



Or The First Age 

Lucifer became Satan — God's opponent. 
Time rolled on ; the human family was wast- 
ing; God's penalty, ' dying thou shalt die', 
was being enforced. Satan realized that his 
kingdom of dying subjects would make a 
poor showing ever. He conceived a plan to 
outwit God and develop a new order of 
beings — hybridized humans, infused with 
superior vitality. 

The angels possessed a God-given power 
of materialization. They could appear in 
human bodies resembling those of men (and 
cites Gen. 18: as proof). The angels were 
permitted contact with the fallen race to 
prove whether they could bring them back 
to God (and cites as proof of this assertion 
Heb. 2:5). 

Pastor Russell then asserts, that these ma- 
terialized angels, or " Sons of God ", took 
129 



In The Beginning 

unto themselves the daughters of men as 
wives, and became the fathers of a race dis- 
tinct from Adam, who were giants phys- 
ically and intellectually — ' men of renown ', 
who filled the earth with violence, and that 
God not having authorized their existence, 
decided to destroy the whole human race, 
except Noah, who was found ' perfect in 
his generation ' (i.e., of pure human stock). 
The rest of mankind, being contaminated 
with the blood of these materialized angels, 
and therefore, a race of beings not sanc- 
tioned by God." 

It is worthy of note, that in this conten- 
tion, the Russellites have the support of the 
Apocalyptic book of Enoch, the first part 
of which contains an account of the fall of 
the angels, and their intercourse with the 
daughters of men producing a race of 
130 



Or The First Age 

giants, and the consequence of such apos- 
tasy. 

To this theory the writer dissents, for the 
following reasons : 

First, the impossibility of Lucifer, being 
able to outwit God. God is omnipotent, om- 
niscient, and omnipresent, hence, could not 
be outwitted. 

Second, angels do not possess sex. Jesus 
said to the Sadducees, at the time of their 
questioning Him in the Temple, " For in 
the resurrection they neither marry, nor are 
given in marriage, but are as the angels of 
God in heaven," (Matt. 22:30), implying 
that angels are sexless. 

Third, if angels in a materialized state 

possessed procreative power, they could 

not beget living beings without the aid of 

God. Progenitors beget the body only, the 

131 



In The Beginning 

life and soul is the breath of God. " In whose 
hand is the soul of every living thing, and 
the breath of all mankind " (Job 12: 10). 

" The spirit of God hath made me, and 
the breath of the Almighty hath given me 
life" (Job 33: 4). 

" Behold, I will cause breath to enter into 
you, and ye shall live " (Ezek. 37: 5). 

" Seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, 
and all things" (Acts 17:25). 

Therefore, it would be impossible for ma- 
terialized angels to beget living beings with- 
out God's assistance, as they would have to 
obtain the breath of life from Him. Again, 
" And the Lord said, I will destroy man 
whom I have created from the face of the 
earth" (Gen. 6:7), not hybrids whom the 
angels created. " The wickedness of man 



132 



Or The First Age 

was great on the earth" (Gen. 6:5), not 
the wickedness of angels. 

Fourth, hybrids of the animal species — 
excepting certain fowls — are incapable of 
propagating their own species. It may be 
accepted as a universal law that every living 
thing God created, has the power of repro- 
ducing its own species, and that nothing man 
or devils ever made has this power. There 
being no case known where a true hybrid 
could do so. The era of creation ended on 
the evening of the sixth day, when God 
made man in his own image. Since that 
time, there has been no creation of any dis- 
tinct species on what biologists call " broad 
lines ". That of propagation alone remains. 

Fifth, that angels ever had access to the 
human family except in the sense of special 
messengers from God, is doubtful. 
133 



In The Beginning 

Sixth, the scriptural references cited by 
Pastor Russell, do not sustain the conten- 
tion, that fallen angels lived on the earth. 
That of Heb. 2 : 5 refers to messages sent by 
means of angelic messengers to notify men 
of God's purposes. Such, for instance, as 
the angel of the Lord brought to Abraham, 
Manoah, Lot, and others. The other refer- 
ences, that of Jude 6, states that, " The 
angels which kept not their first estate, but 
left their own habitation, he hath reserved in 
chains under darkness unto the judgment of 
the great day ", and that of 2 Peter 2 : 4, 
states that the angels that sinned, " were cast 
down to hell, and delivered into chains of 
darkness ". Thus, clearly indicating that 
they were not permitted to roam over the 
earth. The scriptural statement that, 
" Noah was perfect in his generation ", does 

134 



Or The First Age 

not mean that he was of " pure human 
stock ". It refers to his godly character, 
or religious state. " Noah was a just man 
and upright (Margin) in his generations. 
And Noah walked with God ". 

This is attested to by God Himself, in 
the following words, " For thee have I seen 
righteous before me in this generation " 
(Gen. 7:1). 

The conclusions which Pastor Russell, 
and others have drawn from these scrip- 
tures, are for the most part apologetic inter- 
pretations, used for the purpose of making 
the sacred text support heathen mythology 
with its system of gods and demi-gods. 

All such interpretations should be avoided. 

Every doctrine should stand on the plain 

declaration of the word of God. There is 

no warrant in the scriptures for the assump- 

135 



In The Beginning 

tion that the fallen angels lived on the earth, 
and had intercourse with the daughters of 
men, unless we accept the Apocalyptic Book 
of Enoch as the inspired word of God. 

At this early age the sons of Seth, who 
were the progenitors of the Jewish The- 
ocracy, had separated themselves from the 
sons of Cain. Dr. William Smith, in his 
Dictionary of the Bible, states that there 
were two distinct races, or religious com- 
munities, in the time of Noah, " The sons 
of God " (Elohim) and "the sons of man " 
(Ha- Adam). "The sons of God" (Bene- 
Elohim) were the descendants of Seth, and 
worshiped the true God. " The sons of 
man " were descendants of Cain, and 
probably idolaters. The intermarriage of 
these two families, produced a mixed re- 



136 



Or The First Age 

ligion (not a mixed race), that God would 
not tolerate. 

Another class of bible students, known as 
" Higher Critics ", think that this passage 
is " a bit of mythology ", that inadvertently 
crept into the bible, when the compiler was 
sifting the fragments of sacred history from 
ancient mythology. They even express 
astonishment that so little mythology es- 
caped the scrutiny of Moses in view of the 
fact that so much had to be eliminated. 

If the bible is the inspired word of God, 
we must look for a better explanation than 
this. To admit that the bible is partly in- 
spired, and partly mythological, is to de- 
stroy in effect the entire word. For who 
could tell which part was inspired, and 
which was not? Who is competent to de- 
cide such a question ? Who then were " the 
137 



In The Beginning 

sons of God " ? I think it probable, in view 
of the context, that Dr. Smith is correct in 
his deductions. I believe " the sons of 
God " were the progeny of " Adam, who 
was the son of God " (Luke 3 : 38). 

If the rendering of Gen. 4:26, " Then 
began men to call upon the name of the 
Lord ", by Dr. Boothroyd and others, is cor- 
rect, and should be rendered, " Then began 
men to call themselves by the name of the 
Lord ", it would be equivalent to saying, 
" Then began men to call themselves the 
sons of God ". Certain it is that at a very 
early age men began to call God their Father 
and themselves the children of God. 

That there were physical and mental 

giants in the earth in those days was to be 

expected. When God created Adam, He 

created him perfect, both in form and mind. 

138 



Or The First Age 

That they were physically perfect is evident 
from their ability to resist death for nearly 
a thousand years. Considering the mental 
and physical perfection with which God 
created them, it is not to be wondered at, 
that they were giants in stature, and men of 
renown. 



139 



In The Beginning 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE DELUGE. 

The deluge, like the story of creation, and 
the garden of Eden, has led to much con- 
troversy. The so-called critics claim that it 
is only a myth, and that it did not actually 
occur. 

It is, therefore, proper, before taking up 
the study of the flood, to first settle the 
question whether the flood actually occurred 
or not. 

Strictly speaking, the flood was an act of 
God intended as a punishment for the wick- 
edness and violence of man, and as such, 
the chief evidence concerning its occurrence 
140 



Or The First Age 

should be sought for in the revealed word of 
God. Still, there are proofs found in the 
traditions of all the older races of mankind, 
and in the discoveries of geologists, arch- 
aeologists, and palaeontologists, that should 
not be ignored. 

We will take up the matter in what ap- 
pears to be the rational order. First, the 
scriptural proofs, second, the traditional, 
and third, the proofs furnished by the above 
named sciences. 

The scriptural proofs of the deluge, out- 
side of those now under review, are as fol- 
lows: 

" Hast thou marked the old way which 
wicked men have trodden ? Which were cut 
down out of time, whose foundation was 
overflown with a flood" (Job 22: 15-16). 

" For this is as the waters of Noah unto 
141 



In The Beginning 

me; for I have sworn that the waters of 
Noah should no more go over the earth " 
(Isa. 54:9). 

" By faith Noah, being warned of God of 
things not seen as yet, moved with fear, pre- 
pared an ark to the saving of his house ; by 
which he condemned the world, and became 
heir of the righteousness which is by faith v 
(Heb. 11:7). 

" Which sometime were disobedient, when 
once the long suffering of God waited in 
the days of Noah, while the ark was a pre- 
paring, wherein few, that is, eight souls, 
were saved by water " (~i Pet. 3 : 20). 

" And spared not the old world, but saved 
Noah the eighth person, a preacher of right- 
eousness, bringing in the flood upon the 
world of the ungodly " (2 Pet. 2:5). 

It is not necessary to dwell on these scrip- 
142 



Or The First Age 

tures further than to say, that the inspired 
prophet, and apostles, believed the story of 
the flood, and solemnly recorded their belief 
in the passages quoted. 

The author of the Book of Job, the 
prophet Isaiah, and the Apostle Paul, were 
among the great scholars of their day, Peter, 
into whose hands the keys of the kingdom 
were placed, was specially endowed with 
wisdom from on high; and yet they all em- 
phatically recorded their belief in the flood. 

It is true that they were all human, and 
as such, may have been deceived, but when 
the Lord Jesus Christ speaks, it is a bar 
to that kind of criticism, and an end of all 
controversy. Here, I offer his testimony — 
the testimony of one who had a being before 
the creation of the world. " But as the days 



143 



In The Beginning 

of Noe were, so also shall the coming of 
the Son of Man be. For, as in the days 
that were before the flood they were eating 
and drinking, marrying and giving in mar- 
riage, until the day that Noe entered into 
the ark, and knew not until the flood came, 
and took them all away; so shall also the 
coming of the Son of Man be" (Matt. 
24: 37; Luke 17: 26, etc.). 

Could He have been mistaken? Is it 
possible that Jesus did not know the differ- 
ence between history and myth? 

We are forced to the conclusion that He 
must have known, and that the flood ac- 
tually took place. We cannot believe of 
Him, who spake as never man did, that He 
would make a false statement to deceive the 
people. 



144 



Or The First Age 
TRADITIONS OF THE DELUGE. 

The deluge was such a terrible and awful 
event, that it has indelibly impressed itself 
on the memory of mankind. 

Every ancient nation under the heavens, 
has a tradition of a great deluge, in which 
only a few of the inhabitants of the world 
escaped destruction. 

The Greeks, the Chaldeans, the Babylo- 
nians, the Indians, the Egyptians, the Chi- 
nese, the Scandinavians, the Mexicans, the 
Peruvians, all have traditions of a great 
flood that destroyed the world, some of 
which bear a striking resemblance to the 
bible account. 

Perhaps the account next in value to that 
of Genesis, is that of the Greeks, the flood 
of Deucalion and Phyrrha. 

145 



In The Beginning 

The Hindus' account also agrees in many- 
points with that of the bible. The Chal- 
dean account says, that Noe saved Sem, 
Japet and Chem. The Assyrian account is 
similar. 

It is reasonable to conclude that a tradi- 
tion could not appear among so many dif- 
ferent nations, and among people so widely 
distributed over the face of the earth, many 
of whom had no methods of communication, 
unless it had a basis in fact. 

Von Humboldt says, " Ancient traditions 
which we find dispersed over the face of the 
globe, like the fragments of a great ship- 
wreck, are of the greatest interest in the 
philosophic study of our species. They re- 
tain the impress of a common type, and pre- 
sent a resemblance that fills us with aston- 
ishment." 

146 



Or The First Age 

M. Francois Lenormant, in his book " The 
Beginnings of History ", in speaking of the 
traditions of the deluge, says : " We are in a 
position to affirm that the account of the 
deluge is a universal tradition in all branches 
of the human family, with the sole excep- 
tion of the black races, and a tradition 
everywhere so exact and so concordant can- 
not possibly be referred to an imaginary 
myth. It was an actual and terrible event, 
which made so powerful an impression upon 
the first parents of our species that their de- 
scendants could never forget it." 

SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE. 

The scientific evidences of the deluge are 
found in the changes that have been wrought 
in the earth's surface, the strata of sand, 
147 



In The Beginning 

clay, loam and gravel, that have been pre- 
cipitated as silt from large volumes of 
water, and in the caverns, and fissures of 
the earth, in which are found vegetable mat- 
ter, the fossil remains of extinct animals, 
and the bones and relics of antediluvian 
man, that were presumably carried by the 
waters of some great deluge, and deposited 
in these caverns, and alluvial beds, where 
they have been discovered after forty cen- 
turies, by geologists, and archaeologists, and 
brought to the surface to give their silent 
testimony to the truth of the bible statement. 

The reader must not confound this deluge, 
with another great flood that devastated the 
earth during the glacial epoch. 

That deluge antedates the one under dis- 
cussion several thousand years. 

There is conclusive evidence that there 

148 



Or The First Age 

were at least two great deluges, that known 
as the glacial, and that of Noah. 

The fossil remains of animals that per- 
ished in the glacial flood are found in deeper 
strata of gravel than those of the Noah 
flood. In the " deeper gravels " of the first 
flood, no bones or relics of man have ever 
been found, although diligent search has 
been made for them, for the very obvious 
reason, that man had not made his appear- 
ance on the earth at that time, and had no 
part in it. But this second flood, that of 
Noah, is characterized by the presence of 
human bones and relics in abundance. 

The deposits in which they are found are 
cavern loam, river alluvia, lake bottoms, 
sand dunes and other superficial accumula- 
tions. 

In most of the calcareous districts, there 
149 



In The Beginning 

are caverns and fissures where large num- 
bers of animals, including man himself, 
have been washed into them, and covered 
with silt deposits carried in the water which 
overflowed the earth at the time. These cav- 
erns, fissures, and gravel beds, are found in 
almost all parts of the world, in northern 
Asia and western Europe, and in North and 
South America. 

Professor L. T. Townsend, in his excel- 
lent book entitled " The Deluge, History or 
Myth ", states that " In the vast territory 
extending from India and the Mediterranean 
Sea to the Arctic Ocean are caverns in which 
are found the bones of extinct animals, to- 
gether with the relics of man, that unques- 
tionably were carried there by the agency 
of flowing water, — and were buried there 



150 



Or The First Age 

during the devastations of a not very remote 
deluge." 

The same authority states that, " In North 
America the evidence is widespread, that 
man and animals of various kinds, includ- 
ing elephants and mastodons, that were con- 
temporaneous with him, became suddenly 
extinct in a flood that appears to have been 
identical, in point of time, with the one 
that covered Europe, Asia, and Africa, dur- 
ing the age known in geology as that of 
1 The Uppermost Gravels \ and too, in South 
America, fossils of extinct animals have 
been discovered that appear to have suffered 
a fate similar to that which destroyed the 
mammalia in other parts of the world. 

" With the bones of these extinct mam- 
malia, in the caverns of Brazil, Dr. Lund 
recently discovered human skeletons, and 
351 



In The Beginning 

these fossils, it should be kept in mind, be- 
long not to an era of the glacial flood, but 
to that of a flood that devastated the earth 
two thousand or more years later." 

Sir William Jones, an eminent scientist, 
says that, "It is no longer probable only, 
but absolutely certain, that the whole race 
of mankind proceeded from Iran, the part 
of Asia to which Ararat belongs, as from a 
center, whence they migrated, at first in 
three great columns; and that these three 
branches grew from a common stock, which 
had been miraculously preserved in a gen- 
eral convulsion and inundation of the globe.'' 

Such is but an epitome of the scientific 
evidence that can be offered in support of 
the actual historical facts of the deluge. 

If this does not convince the reader that 
the flood actually occurred, and that the 
152 



Or The First Age 

story is not a myth, no amount of evidence 
will. Indeed, there are some historical facts 
so well established, that no amount of evi- 
dence can make them more plain, and this 
is one of them, 



153 



In The Beginning 



CHAPTER XIV. 

According to the geneological table of the 
antediluvian patriarchs given by Moses, the 
deluge occurred in or about the year 1856 
A.M., and in the sixth hundredth year of the 
life of Noah, who was the chief human char- 
acter concerned with it. 

Of this remarkable character we know 
nothing until he was five hundred years old, 
except that he was the son of Lamech and 
the great grandson of Enoch, and that he 
" found grace in the eyes of the Lord " be- 
cause he " was a just man, perfect in his 
generations; and Noah walked with God". 

Among all the teeming millions of brutal, 
violent, God-defying people, who inhabited 
154 



Or The First Age 

the earth at that time, Noah alone stood true 
to God. " For thee have I seen righteous 
before me in this generation " (Gen. 7:1). 

Such was the character of Noah, and per- 
haps the other members of his family. All 
the rest of " the earth was filled with vio- 
lence. And God saw that the wickedness of 
man was great in the earth, and that every 
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was 
only evil continually. And it repented the 
Lord that He had made man on the earth, 
and it grieved Him at His heart. And the 
Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have 
created from the face of the earth ; both man 
and beasts, and the creeping things, and the 
fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I 
have made them " (Gen. 6: 5-7). 

I think it proper at this time to explain 
that the expression, " it repented the Lord 
155 



In The Beginning 

that He had made man on the earth, and it 
grieved Him at His heart ", is what is called 
an anthropomorphism. 

Dr. Marcus Dodds says, " it is a manner 
of presenting God in terms of human lan- 
guage. It is used in the same sense as we 
speak of ' the hand of God ', ' the eye of 
God ', ' the heart of God ', etc. These ex- 
pressions, while not literally true, serve a 
useful purpose, and convey to us a meaning 
that could not be otherwise expressed. We 
are not to understand by these expressions 
that God has a visible body with hands, 
heart and eyes, like man, neither did the 
ancient Hebrews so believe, but they used 
these expressions as we do, because our lan- 
guage is formed for human use, and we 
have no better mode of expressing our 
thoughts of the attributes of God. Strictly 
156 



Or The First Age 

speaking, God does not feel, think, and act 
as men do, yet, we cannot conceive of Him 
in any other than human form." 

The corruption, violence and bloodshed 
that brought about the deluge, appears to 
have been the result of the intermarriage of 
the two distinct classes — " the sons of God " 
who were the descendants of Seth, and " the 
sons of men " who were the idolatrous de- 
scendants of Cain, which brought into exis- 
tence a mixed race, who were giants in 
stature, and men of violence. 

The bible account says that " God saw the 
wickedness of man was great upon the earth, 
and that every imagination of the thoughts 
of his heart was only evil continually ". 

Sin had become so prevalent that ruin was 
inevitable, the race was slowly, surely, com- 
mitting suicide. There was only one right- 
157 



In The Beginning 

eous family left. Would God permit it to 
be destroyed, and see His purpose frus- 
trated? Or, would He, as He did in the 
garden of Eden, interpose His sovereign 
right and bring judgment down upon iniq- 
uity? Yes, there is no other way. The 
hand of God will never shove by justice. 
He must protect His own dignity. He must 
save the righteous from extinction. 

Let those who think the deluge to have 
been cruel and inhuman, remember that God 
had exhausted every means to save men. 
He had never ceased to make efforts to 
save, until He saw the utter hopelessness of 
the situation. This is clearly indicated by 
His statement, " My spirit shall not always 
strive with man ". He had tried until 
patience was exhausted. And Noah had 



158 



Or The First Age 

preached righteousness for an hundred and 
twenty years, and not a soul repented. 

Another evidence of the long-suffering 
of God is seen in the fact that, after the 
ark was completed and Noah and his family 
had entered it, He waited yet seven days be- 
fore sending the rain. 

Man had proved himself to be irredeem- 
ably bad, " Every imagination of the 
thoughts of his heart was only evil con- 
tinually." There was no relenting, no com- 
punction, no mixture of good and bad — it 
was all bad. 

Dr. L. T. Townsend says, " There is 
manifest evidence of God's mercy in the 
time of Noah. After the destruction of the 
human race had been planned, God, mean- 
while grieving over the sins of the people 
and sorrowing for the necessity of carrying 
159 



In The Beginning 

out his purpose, waited one hundred and 
twenty years before its execution. And all 
this time there was the object lesson, the 
building of the ark, before the eyes of the 
people, and the warning voice of Noah 
sounding in their ears. Still, their hearts 
were not softened, nor their crimes lessened. 
The whole antediluvian world, filled with 
brutal lust and violence, was growing worse 
and worse, and was, as stated a moment ago, 
on the way to its doom." 



160 



Or The First Age 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE ARK. 

" Make thee an ark of gopher-wood ; 
rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shall 
pitch it within and without with pitch. And 
this is the fashion which thou shalt make 
it of : The length of the ark shall be three 
hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, 
and the heighth of it thirty cubits. A win- 
dow shalt thou make in the ark, and in a 
cubit shalt thou finish it above ; and the door 
of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; 
with lower, second, and third stories shalt 
thou make it. And behold, I, even I, do 
bring a flood of water upon the earth, to de- 
161 



In The Beginning 

stroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, 
from under heaven; and everything that is 
in the earth shall die. But with thee I will 
establish my covenant; and thou shalt come 
into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy 
wife, and thy sons' wives with thee, and of 
every living thing of all flesh, two of every 
sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep 
them alive with thee ; they shall be male and 
female, — and take thou unto thee of all food 
that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to 
thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and 
for them. Thus did Noah according to all 
that God commanded him, so did he " (Gen. 
6: 14-22). 

The dimensions of the ark in feet and 

inches are unknown. The bible figures say 

it was three hundred cubits long, fifty 

cubits wide and thirty cubits high, but the 

162 



Or The First Age 

cubit is of several kinds, eighteen, nineteen, 
and twenty-one inches. 

This causes a slight difference of opinions 
among scholars, when cubits are reduced to 
feet. 

Allowing twenty-one inches as the length 
of a cubit, the ark would be 525 feet long, 
87 y 2 feet wide, 52 y 2 feet high, and con- 
tained three stories. 

The objection, that the ark was not large 
enough to have accommodated all the ani- 
mals, birds and insects, that are said to 
have entered it, may be dismissed with a 
few words. If the flood actually occurred, 
there must have been ample room in the ark 
for the purpose. How else could they have 
been preserved? There were no other 
means of escape from death except by the 
ark, for the whole earth was covered with 
163 



In The Beginning 

water " fifteen cubits and upwards, and the 
mountains were covered ". 

The meagre description of the ark does 
not warrant an opinion as to the internal ar- 
rangements. We know that it had compart- 
ments, or rooms, probably for the purpose 
of keeping the animals separated. There 
was a window for light and ventilation, that 
probably extended the entire circumference 
of the ark, and was one cubit in width, and 
also a door in the side entering into the three 
stories, for the purpose of entrance and exit, 
and the taking in of food supplies. 

The ark having been completed and pro- 
visioned according to God's instructions, 
" Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, 
and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, 
because of the waters of the flood. Of clean 
beasts, and beasts that are not clean, and of 
164 



Or The First Age 

fowls, and of everything that creepeth upon 
the earth. There went in two and two unto 
Noah into the ark, the male and the female, 
as God commanded Noah" (Gen. 7:7-9). 

The Lord waited seven days longer, then 
He shut the door of the ark. 

" The same day were all the fountains of 
the great deep broken up, and the windows 
of heaven were opened. And the rain was 
upon the earth forty days and forty nights " 
(Gen. 7: 11-12). 

THE FLOOD. 

The judgments of God had been slow, but 
the day of reckoning was now at hand. 

Dr. Joseph Parker, in " The Peoples' 
Bible ", thus describes the flood : " The 
waters rose and covered the low lands. 



In The Beginning 

Men fled away to the mountains, but the 
cruel waters followed close at their heels. 
The wolf, the lion, the leopard stood upon 
the crags, baying and roaring with a fury 
that drove them mad, and high above the 
surging sea the fowls of the air screamed. 
At last there was but one hill-top left, and 
there the strongest and fiercest sons of men 
gathered, and there were prayers and oaths 
and curses and cries that made the wild 
beasts quiet, and still the waters rose, the 
midnight lightning showed the dreary waste 
on which no star glittered, and amid thun- 
ders that shook the universe, the last strong 
man plunged into the gulf below. ' And all 
flesh died that moved upon the earth; all in 
whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all 
that was in the dry land died.' 

" Oh, what a rain it was. What an out- 
166 



Or The First Age 

look from the window of the ark. For many 
a long day no eye could venture to look out 
of that window. For who could bear to see 
the gray-haired man, and the fair woman, 
and the little child doomed to die." 

" The waters prevailed upon the earth an 
hundred and fifty days ", though the rain 
only lasted forty days and nights. At the 
end of the one hundred and fifty days, " God 
made a wind to pass over the earth, and the 
waters assuaged; the fountains also of the 
deep and the windows of heaven were 
stopped, and the rain from heaven was re- 
strained ". And on the first day of the tenth 
month, " were the tops of the mountains 
seen ". 

At the end of forty days, Noah opened the 
window of the ark and sent forth a raven, 
then he sent forth a dove, but " the dove 
167 



In The Beginning 

found no rest for the sole of her foot " and 
returned. After seven days he sent out the 
dove again, and the dove returned in the 
evening, " and, lo, in her mouth was an olive 
leaf plucked off ". After another seven days 
he sent the dove forth, " and she returned 
not again ". 

Shortly after this the ark landed. 

The time occupied by the flood from the 
beginning of the rain until the land was 
dry was three hundred and fifty-eight days, 
seven days less than our year, or one year 
and ten days by the Jewish calendar. 

The ark was supposed to have been built 
in the Euphrates valley, from whence it 
floated northward to the place where it 
rested among the mountains of Ararat. 
And here God sent him forth from the ark. 

The flood was now over. Every living 
168 



Or The First Age 

creature in whose nostrils was the breath of 
life was dead, except those that were in the 
ark. 

The first recorded act of Noah after he 
went forth out of the ark, was to offer sacri- 
fice. " And Noah builded an altar unto the 
Lord; and took of every clean beast, and 
every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings 
on the altar " (Gen. 8 : 20). 

This sacrifice so pleased the Lord, that He 
immediately entered into the covenant with 
Noah that He had promised before the de- 
luge took place, and declared that He would 
" never again curse the ground for man's 
sake ", even though " the imagination of 
man's heart is evil from his youth ", and 
He gave Noah this pledge, " While the earth 
remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold 



169 



In The Beginning 

and heat, and summer and winter, and day 
and night shall not cease " (Gen. 8 : 22). 

There will be convulsions of the earth, 
causing upheavals and subsidences of its 
crust; there will be earthquakes, volcanoes, 
and tidal waves, there will be disasters by 
fire and flood, but so long as the rainbow is 
seen in the heavens — and that will be " while 
the earth remains " — there will be no more 
destruction of the earth by water. 

We are not to understand by this promise, 
that God has ceased to punish iniquity. The 
judgments of God will surely, irresistibly 
come. 

Surely Noah and his descendants, with 
this solemn history of the flood behind them, 
and the covenant of God before them, will 
do better than Adam and his descendants. 



170 



Or The First Age 

How they succeeded we shall learn in the 
next paragraph. 

" And Noah began to be an husbandman, 
and he planted a vineyard. And he drank 
of the wine, and was drunken; and he was 
uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the 
father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his 
father, and told his two brethren without. 
* * * And Noah awoke from his wine, 
and knew what his younger son had done 
unto him. And he said, cursed be Canaan; 
a servant of servants shall he be unto his 
brethren" (Gen. 9:20-25). What a sad 
commentary on the stability of man, that 
the second father of the race should be guilty 
of the same sin as the first — that of self-in- 
dulgence. Adam's indulgence in Eden 
brought death, and Noah's indulgence 
brought slavery. 

171 



In The Beginning 

I cannot help thinking that the great law- 
giver recorded this incident for an object 
lesson, to teach the world that inebriety in- 
evitably leads to slavery. With what sad 
certainty history has proved the necessity 
for such a warning. Ever since Noah dis- 
covered the process of making wine, drank 
it, was drunken, and cursed the dark-skinned 
descendants of Ham into slavery, one-third 
of the inhabitants of the earth have been 
in slavery to alcohol. If ever there was a 
crime of deeper dye, or more far-reaching 
and destructive in its consequences than all 
the other vices of man, it is imbibing alco- 
holic liquors. " There is no other kind of 
poisoning," says Dr. Norman Kerr, " which 
so degrades brain structure, and disturbs 
mental function, while physically degenerat- 
ing bodily texture, and undermining vital 

172 



Or The First Age 

organs, or which is so far-reaching in its 
operations as alcohol, transmitting as it does 
through generations, a great variety of men- 
tal defects, and moral perversities. It in- 
cites more breaches of human and divine 
law, ranging from minor offences to grave 
crimes, than all other causes combined." 

What a delusion man is ! 

How incapable of caring for himself ! 

With all his vaunted knowledge and do- 
minion over the earth, he has never quite 
mastered himself. Confused at times, and 
bewildered with perplexing doubts, he often 
does not know whither he is going, or 
whither he should go, and what is still more 
to be wondered at, he often does not know 
what conduces to his own welfare, or what 
is his own interest. How plainly all this in- 



173 



In The Beginning 

dicates the wisdom of the Creator in send- 
ing a God to redeem him. How forcibly it 
proclaims the gospel truth, that there is none 
good but God. 



174 



Or The First Age 
SCRIPTURAL REFERENCES. 

Genesis 8: 10-12; 18; 50: 10. 

Exodus 16: 22-30. 

Leviticus 27 : 7-19. 

Deuteronomy 32: 17. 

I Chronicles 21:1. 

Nehemiah 13: 15-21. 

Job 1 : 6-12; 2: 1-7; 12: 10; 22\ 15-16; 

33:4. 

Psalms 5 1 : 5 ; 90 : 10 ; 106 : 37. 

Ecclesiastes 8 : 2. 

Isaiah 13:21; 14:13; 34: H; 54:9; 
56:2-6. 

Jeremiah 17 : 24-25 ; 21:8. 

Ezekiel33:8;37:5. 

Zechariah, 3 : 1-2. 

Ecclesiasticus 25 : 24. 

Matthew 5:8; 7:12; 6:15; 7:12; 
22:30; 24:37. 

175 



In The Beginning 

Mark 2: 27-28; 16: 7. 

Luke 2:35; 3:38; 6:27; 10: 18; 17:26. 

St. John 3 : 12. 

Acts 1 : 16; 17: 25; 20: 7. 

Romans 5: 12; 5 : 13; 6: 23; 9: 5; 10: 12; 

14:5. 

I Corinthians 2:5. 

II Corinthians 4 : 7. 
Galatians 4: 10; 6:7. 
Ephesians 3: 9-1 1. 
Colossians 2:16. 
Hebrews 2:5; 11: 4-7. 
James 20 : 26. 

I Peter 3 : 20. 

II Peter 3:8; 2:4; 5. 
I John 4:11. 

Judge 6-14. 
Revelations 1 : 10; 12 : 9. 



176 



Or The First Age 
AUTHORS MENTIONED. 

Apostolic Constitution, on keeping both 
the Sabbath, and the Lord's day sacred. 

Athanasian Creed, on the incarnation. 

Augustine, on the length of days before 
the sun was created. 

Bochart, on the location of the garden of 
Eden. 

Boothroyd, on the translation of Genesis 
4:26. 

Calmet, on the garden of Eden. 

Calvin, on the location of the garden oi 
Eden. 

Council of Laodicea, on decree forbid- 
ding Christians to keep the Jewish Sab- 
bath. 

Coleridge, interprets the story of Eden as 
an allegory. 

177 



In The Beginning 

Cowper, on the geology of the world's age. 

Dodds, Dr. Marcus, on the grief and re- 
pentance of God. 

Epistle of Barnabas, on the resurrection 
of our Lord. 

Eusebius, on the Lord's Day. 

Encyclopedia Brittanica, on location of 
Eden, the serpent, and the Book of 
Enoch. 

Gibbons, Cardinal John J., on the signifi- 
cance of the Seed, the Serpent, and the 
Woman, the incarnation. 

Huet, on the garden of Eden. 

Humboldt, Von, on the significance of tra- 
ditions. 

Ignatius, on the Christian Sabbath. 

Josephus, on the location of Eden. 

Jones, Sir William, on the certainty of 



178 



Or The First Age 

the whole human race proceeding from 
the sons of Noah. 

Kerr, Dr. Norman, on the poisonous ef- 
fects of alcohol. 

Lenormant, on the traditions of the deluge. 

Laurence, on The Book of Enoch. 

Longfellow, on the sorrows of life. 

Lund, on the discovery of human remains 
in Brazil. 

Miller, Hugh, on the teaching of geology. 

Martyr Justin, on the Christian Sabbath. 

Origen, on the allegory of Eden. 

Parker, Dr. Joseph, on the description of 
the deluge. 

Philo, on Eden as a symbol of the soul. 

Pliny, on the Christian Sabbath. 

Rosen muller, on the garden of Eden. 

Russell, Pastor, on " The Sons of God " 
and " The Daughters of Men ". 
179 



In The Beginning 

Smith, Dr. William, on the " Sons of 
God and the Sons of men ". 

Smith, Wm. Robertson, on the marriage 
relation. 

Totten, Professor, on the waters above 
the firmament. 

Townsend, Prof. L. T., on scientific evi- 
dences of the deluge, and evidences of 
God's mercy in the time of Noah. 

Wayland, Dr. Francis, on our obligation 
to keep the Sabbath holy. 



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